Skin
by New Neon
Summary: A little soulmate AU where Zoro is weird, Sanji is in love with the idea of love and the rest of the crew can only watch in dismay. It'll be updated in little drabble like chapters. Mainly done for my own amusement. Zosan, Frobin and an unconventional LuNa
1. Chapter 1

The first time that Sanji sees Roronoa Zoro he's sat at a table in the Baratie with his nakama laughing loudly and, to Sanji's opinion, obnoxiously. Zoro is a strange looking man and Sanji can see that from a simple glance at him. The green hair is just the start but with the exception of his face every inch of Zoro's skin is covered up. His chest and arms are covered in a black skintight shirt that leaves absolutely nothing to the imagination and his hands are in black leather gloves. He's wearing some stupid looking green band around his middle with not one but three (seriously, three?) swords at his hip. Then his legs are in dark green trousers and the stomp of his feet in their heavy boots irritates Sanji. So, yeah, he's odd.

When he rushes off to fight Mihawk and loses spectacularly although apparently gains the respect of the warlord Sanji mentally upgrades him to fucking abnormal.

The first hints of Zoro's particular brand of abnormality are evident from the start but only really noticeable in hindsight. He doesn't let anyone touch the wounds on his chest and when Sanji sees him next he's bandaged up like a mummy. That all seems sensible because in all honesty those bandages are probably the only thing keeping Zoro's insides inside.

When he's fully acquired for Luffy's motley little crew Zoro is wearing different but still as concealing clothes. He's hardly going to pick Zoro up for his fashion choices when he has a slew of other abnormalities going on. He probably should have though. Zoro reacts like a scalded cat when Luffy grabs him a little way later.

"Don't touch me!" Zoro yells and flails out of Luffy's grasp. That clue seems normal too, no sane person wanted to be subject to Luffy's not noticeable rubber grab-and-throw technique. Sanji had been subject to a few of his own before then.

He should perhaps have noticed the way that Zoro avoided touch of any kind, ducking out of embraces that Luffy and Nami didn't really try for. Eventually Zoro seemed to unhappily accept that Luffy was just going to grab him from time to time but he never looked pleased about it.

So it's not without interest that Sanji's ears perks up when Usopp asks his question.

"Zoro, why don't you let anyone touch you?" Usopp asks and Sanji sees Zoro stiffen. Sanji turns the burner off on his saucepan but keeps it there, maintaining the appearance of work as he watches the others sidelong.

"Because I don't want anyone to." Zoro answers curtly in a way that explains jack shit.

"You have every inch of yourself covered up, it's like your scared of anyone touching your skin." Usopp comments and Sanji winces. Scared was a suicidally dumb word choice and he will not be at all surprised if Usopp ends up thrown in the ocean.

"I am not scared." Zoro says, slow and dangerous to the sound of his sword sliding free of its home.

"Let's not kill Usopp, okay?" Sanji sighs, turning around. Zoro is glaring daggers at Usopp who is going paler by the second.

"That really would be great." Nami sighs, her chin in her hand. She looks too weary to intervene, either it's a discussion that she's already had with Zoro and knows of its pointlessness or she accepts that she can't stop Zoro in whatever he intends to do.

"He told me that he doesn't want me to touch his face." Luffy announces brightly. Zoro relaxes a little and looks over at Luffy. His sword drops back into place and though Luffy's words aren't an order Sanji guesses that Usopp isn't going to try touching Zoro's skin out of curiosity.

"So is it just your face or any skin?" Sanji asks because Usopp is too terrified to ask more.

Zoro's appearance goes from irritated but calming down to utter rage. The exposed skin of his face reddens slightly and contorts with anger and a flash of something else that Sanji can't parse and it's gone before he gets a better look.

"It's none of your fucking business, just don't do it." Zoro snarls and storms out of the room.

"What was that about?" Usopp asks in a trembling voice.

"It's just Zoro." Luffy shrugs and laughs.

"We don't really know why, just he really doesn't want anyone doing it. His swords stop enemies from getting close enough to do it and he's covered up enough elsewhere so he'll probably not have anyone touch him unless he actually wants it." Nami shrugs easily and Sanji is momentarily distracted by the movement that causes in her perfect chest.

Sanji purses his lips around his cigarette and thinks. Zoro isn't a totally unreasonable man and it's highly unlikely that he would be this adamant about something without a good reason. Black is often a colour that graces Zoro's form, his shirts are either black or white, his gloves are black, his boots and his trousers and bandana are such a dark green that they're almost black. One word comes to the forefront of Sanji's mind.

 _Mourning._

He drops the topic after that. If Zoro doesn't want someone touching his skin after the death of the one person whose touch on his skin meant everything then Sanji thinks that's perfectly reasonable and respects it. So he fights with Zoro because he can't avoid it, his feet and his legs make enough contact with Zoro when they brawl but he never lets his skin touch Zoro's. One time when he actually gets Zoro to tumble to the floor Zoro knocks Sanji down with him by hitting him in the back of the knee. From the terrified look on Zoro's face as Sanji falls towards him he guesses that Zoro didn't mean it. He falls down to Zoro and realises that his hand is going to hit Zoro's face and that Zoro can tell it too. He jerks it out of the way and gets Zoro with his shoulder instead, his arm flying so far out that it hits the deck after the rest of him. His last minute diversion of his limbs means that nothing breaks Sanji's fall and he lands face first on the deck with a crack and a bright burst of pain in his nose.

"Are you okay?" Zoro asks as he scrambles away from Sanji in a crab like fashion that Sanji would find hilarious if it wasn't for the fact that he thinks that he might have broken his nose.

"Shit, I think I broke it. I think _you_ broke it." He amends in accusation.

Zoro's face looks as pained as Sanji's own feels and gingerly and oh so slowly Zoro comes closer on his hands and knees and reaches out a gloved hand for Sanji's face. A leather clad thumb and finger run down either side of Sanji's nose and he holds his breath in shock.

"It's not broken." Zoro answers and moves back away from Sanji again.

"Well, that's good." Sanji agrees awkwardly.

"Thanks for... not... touching." Zoro thanks him in an even more awkward manner, clearly aware that Sanji only smashed is face into the deck so that he could respect the wishes of his nakama.

"You owe me." Sanji sniffs, getting blood down his throat and he's going to get Zoro to do something that he really doesn't want to just out of spite.

"Yeah right, love cook." Zoro snorts but the tone is somehow a little warmer.

After that incident Zoro still doesn't let Sanji touch him, he doesn't let anyone do that, but Zoro doesn't enforce a three foot wide personal bubble any more. Or at least not with Sanji. It's fruitless even trying that with Luffy but some part of Sanji is pleased that he's the first one that the rule drops for even though it eventually is abandoned to the other crew members too. Still no touching, but there's trust there now that no one will do it.


	2. Chapter 2

"Is it because of your soulmate?" Vivi asks brazenly and everyone else around the table freezes.

"What." Zoro says, it's not a question. Sanji knows Zoro well enough to read it as a warning for Vivi to drop the fucking subject right the fuck now. If it was any other subject Sanji would kick his ass for daring to speak to a lady like that. But this is important to Zoro and though he doesn't condone this at all he's not going to throw himself in the middle. Just for this one subject though.

"Everyone knows that the moment you touch your soulmate you know that they're meant for you. It has to be skin though. So why don't you let anyone touch you? You'll never meet them that way or... or are they..." Vivi trails off, her eyes going wide as she takes in Zoro's current outfit of entirely black and she clearly starts coming rapidly to the conclusion that Sanji had.

Everyone in the world has a soulmate, it's just a fact. Somewhere out there is Sanji's and in all honesty he's desperate to meet her, or maybe him, but his money is on his soulmate being a woman. Of course a large number of people at any time aren't with their soulmate, either through not having met them yet like Sanji or that they've died like Sanji suspects Zoro's has.

Supposedly the first time that you touch your soulmate it's like being electrified, it's the pure bliss at finding the other half of your soul or in some cases the other third. Sanji has no real idea how it works for polyamorous soulmates, does their first touch feel like getting part of their soul or are they destined to all bump into each other at the same time? Either way it fills that gnawing emptiness that chews at the edge of the mind of everyone who hadn't met their soulmate yet. Sanji dearly wants to find his, both to scratch that itch that he can't do on his own but also so that he can find true love and he's a romantic at heart.

People go about it differently of course, some people like him flirt with and make contact with as many people as possible in the hope of upping their odds of finding that one person. Some people like Usopp just carry on as normal, figuring that fate will take its course. Then there are those lucky few like Nami and Luffy who literally are thrown together.

Nami and Luffy are an unusual case, there aren't all that many platonic soulmates out there but the pair of them are just that. They're certainly not unheard of but they are rarer than the romantic kind. Sanji has no idea if it's because one or both of them has no intention of having sex with anyone or if the people they eventually end up with romantically won't mean as much to them as they do to each other. Still, the way that Nami fits with Luffy's exuberance, the way that she balances him out with her rationality but also backs him up absolutely warms Sanji's heart.

What makes Sanji's heart chill though is Zoro. Zoro is a little young to have met and lost his soulmate. Perhaps they were childhood sweethearts tragically cut short. If the itch of not knowing his soulmate bothers Sanji he can't imagine what it must feel like to have that filled and then ripped out. Plenty of soulmates who lose their other halves die at the same time or right after from the shock or the grief. Bringing it up to Zoro must hurt like hell.

"I don't _want_ one, not that it's any of your business." Zoro growls out in his darkest tone of voice.

Everyone in the room looks shocked. Sanji's brain trips over the idea, turning it over in incomprehension. How could anyone not want to find their soulmate? It's one thing not to go out actively looking for them but to avoid finding them is unthinkable. If Zoro doesn't want to find his then his clothes instantly make sense. Zoro is avoiding touching anyone at all, he could run right into his soul mate and as long as they didn't touch his face neither of them would ever know that they met. Holy shit.

"How can you not want to meet your soulmate?!" He yells out in shock and Zoro turns his hot glare on Sanji.

"I can't afford to." Zoro answers waspishly.

"I have a dream to achieve and I can't do it if I'm distracted or tied down by someone else. I don't want them, whoever they are." Zoro says with a haughty expression on his face as if that decision makes him better than them.

"That's... that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard!" Sanji snarls, leaping to his feet. His chair bounces on the wooden floor behind him at his sudden movement.

"It's not dumb!" Zoro yells back, getting to his feet as well.

"Yes it is! Your soulmate supports you, they're your other half, and they help you, they don't make things worse!" He shouts, his fists clenching on the table top. Zoro snorts at him mockingly.

"Okay Sanji, your dream is to find All Blue isn't it?" Zoro asks with a tilt of his head.

"You know it is." Sanji says darkly, what the fuck is Zoro getting at here?

"So what if you met your soulmate and she couldn't stand the sea? What if it made her sick? Would you drag her out onto the sea to find All Blue with you?" Zoro asks and Sanji's jaw drops. That would... that would never happen.

"Or what if she had something tying her to where she lives? So she can't leave with you. What do you do? Would you leave her like you never met her even though it's hard finding the same place twice out here or that you could die before getting back to her?" Zoro presses him.

"That's- no. I wouldn't look for my soulmate my whole life just to leave her." Sanji says unhappily and tries to ignore the way that Usopp flinches, he remembers too late that what he just described was Usopp's parents situation. Still, he's telling the truth, he wouldn't do that.

"So, which would you do then? Would you give up on your dream just to be with your soulmate or would you drag them onto the sea? One of you would end up miserable and bitter for it and you'd lose a dream." Zoro says darkly.

"You don't know that would happen! Your soulmate is perfect for you, it's the definition! My soulmate would be happy for my trying to find All Blue, they would want something like it too!" Sanji argues back.

"You can't be sure of that. I'm not risking my dream for that." Zoro says with a shake of his head and one horrible part deep down in Sanji admits that though Zoro is wrong through and through his argument does make logical sense.

"I feel sorry for your soulmate." He spits because it's the only thing that he can say.

"So you marry them then, I don't care." Zoro answers with a careless shrug and walks off.


	3. Chapter 3

"Don't touch me!" Zoro hisses, his words coloured by pain.

Sanji has thrown Zoro on the table in the galley. He's bleeding profusely from both of his ankles and Sanji is getting his boots off as quickly as he can.

"I'm not going to touch you." He says stiffly as he carefully pulls one boot free, his other hand holding onto Zoro's shin through his trousers so that he doesn't jerk Zoro's leg and injure his ankle further.

"You're touching me _right now_. Don't touch my skin!" Zoro snarls.

"You're bleeding, and if I don't stitch your ankles you'll lose those feet. Or don't you need those in a fight?" Sanji snaps, throwing the second boot behind him. He gets up and glares at Zoro with his hands on his hips.

Blood drips from Zoro's socks onto the floor.

"We don't have a doctor and I have the most skilled hands around here, if you want a chance to save those feet then you need me." He points out.

Zoro looks like he's going to be sick.

"Besides, have a little trust in me will you? Don't you owe me that?" Sanji says, turning his back to Zoro and walking to the one drawer in the kitchen that he keeps prepared for this kind of thing. He pulls out the first aid kit. He's got lots of things for burns in here but more than enough for injuries like this. Though he's focused on retrieving his supplies he can't deny the undercurrent of hurt that runs through him from Zoro trusting him so little. He had thought that they were past all of that.

He returns to Zoro and pointedly snaps on sterile latex gloves. Zoro swallows and relaxes a little, nodding ever so slightly.

Sanji takes Zoro's right sock off and grimaces at how bad the cut is. He's not gone through to his Achilles tendon thank God but he's close.

"Move back, foot on the table." Sanji orders, pushing Zoro's shoulders with contact that he doesn't usually have outside of fights with the man. Zoro shivers but does as he's told anyway.

Sanji draws up a seat and disinfects Zoro's cut. He threads a needle with the material for medical stitches and begins the slow and painful process of putting Zoro back together. He's careful not to let his bare skin touch Zoro's though. It's not because he thinks that he is Zoro's soulmate but because of how huge that boundary is for Zoro. Touching him would be a huge violation and they're nakama, he's not going to do that to him.

Still, that night in the quiet of his galley to the soundtrack of Zoro's pained hisses and curses Sanji touches Zoro more than he ever has before. Even though there is a thin barrier of latex between them it feels like he really is touching Zoro. It's nothing like Zoro's hands on him when they fight, the heat of Zoro's body dissipated through the leather. The latex hides nothing and he can feel Zoro's skin in detail and the heat radiating from it.

His stitches are nowhere near as good as those of an acutal doctor but they save Zoro from losing any extremities and it feels so oddly intimate that his handiwork lives on Zoro's bare skin and will forever, the skin that Zoro allows no one to touch.


	4. Chapter 4

Maybe it's the way that Zoro's words linger in his mind but whenever he sees Zoro so absolutely covered up it feels like Sanji has been stabbed in the chest. What if Zoro is right and his soulmate wants something incompatible to him? What if he never finds his soulmate? What if he fucks up chasing his dream because he's too busy trying to find his soulmate?

Sanji starts to get a little obsessed about it and starts touching anyone and everyone at every shitty little spit of land or island that they come across and he knows that Zoro sees him doing it. When they get to Drum he's starting to feel unhinged and desperate and a part of him fears that Zoro is right and he's wrong.

"You must have touched a thousand people out there since I first met you." Zoro says with a raise of his eyebrows as he changes his clothes for winter ones. It's too goddamn cold in Drum and they need new clothes but Sanji has never seen Zoro out of his concealed clothes. The most he's seen is Zoro's ankles, so seeing his gloves off and Zoro's bare hands shouldn't do anything to him but it does.

"I just want..." Sanji trails off as his eyes run down to Zoro's naked hands.

"I just want to be happy, is that so bad?" He says quietly and Zoro scowls.

"You don't need a soulmate to be happy." Zoro says curtly.

"I didn't say that you did. But having mine would make me happy. I hope it would anyway." He says sadly and Zoro snarls. Suddenly Zoro's hands, his _bare_ hands, are fisted in the front of Sanji's shirt.

"You're a fucking idiot. Don't wait for some stranger to be happy! Be happy on your own first!" the other man yells at him.

Sanji looks down. Zoro's skintight shirt goes all the way down past his thumbs, there's holes in the side for his thumbs.

"I always wondered how you never showed your wrists when you stretched." He says numbly and gently touches his hands to Zoro's covered forearms. He doesn't do anything with them, he just feels the heat from Zoro's skin radiating out through his clothes.

"That's not the point." Zoro says, looking down at his arms as well.

"I am happy, our nakama make me happy. But what if you're right and my soulmate isn't... if it doesn't work?" He whispers, getting back on topic. His hands trail down to Zoro's wrists.

"Then you have to be happy on your own. What are you doing?" Zoro asks slowly, his eyes on Sanji's fingertips.

"You need trust for your soulmate, right? So what does it say that your stupid decision not to look for yours made me doubt mine? I trust my nakama with my dream more than I trust my soulmate. How fucked is that?" Sanji says bitterly.

His fingers are at the edges of Zoro's sleeves now, he's skirting the seam of Zoro's shirt at his hands with his fingertips.

"That trust is earned." Zoro says quietly and he's watching Sanji closely, not his hands, but Sanji.

"Don't you feel it though? That empty space at the edge of your soul where your soulmate should be." Sanji asks. Maybe he's broken because he feels it so hard. Maybe he just wants someone to come in and fill all of the cracks that are in him. He knows that he's not perfect and that his soul is cracked and dented from all that he's been through. Being on that fucking rock gouged a hole in him so deep that it'll never be filled.

"I feel the emptiness from not fulfilling my promise to be the greatest more." Zoro retorts with a smug smile.

"But you do feel it though." Sanji concludes, his thumbs rubbing soft circles on the small patch of covered skin on the back of Zoro's hands. His words make Zoro jolt and Zoro almost jerks himself into skin to skin contact with Sanji. The blonde actually has to pull his thumbs out of the way to avoid it.

He and Zoro stare down at their hands and what very nearly happened. One treacherous part of Sanji's brain points out that he's touched so many people, what's one more? He slams his foot down on that thought with such prejudice that it dies instantly. He'd never forgive himself for going over that line. Sanji swallows thickly and takes his hands away. Zoro lets the front of Sanji's shirt go. Zoro steps back and pulls a woolen jumper on over his skintight shirt.

"I still want to meet them." Sanji admits quietly.

"You're hopeless." Zoro sighs, but it doesn't sound mocking.

Zoro shrugs on a coat, pulls on a thicker pair of gloves and a hat and heads off outside into the snow, leaving Sanji with a pile of winter clothes and an empty gnawing feeling at the edge of his soul.

He touches another twenty people in the village and even that doctor woman when he wakes up. God help him he even pets the little reindeer doctor.

Later pink rains from the sky Sanji watches it in silence and appreciates its beauty. He looks across at Zoro, the man still watching the sky, and appreciates that beauty too. If Sanji really does want to take Zoro's advice and learn to be happy without his soulmate then he could learn from Zoro. Though if he admits that he wants to learn anything from Zoro then he may just borrow one of the swordsman's precious swords and gut himself with them. He almost cringes about how honest he was with Zoro before when they were getting changed into their winter clothes.

He looks at the way that Zoro's undershirt runs up to his jawbone and wonders if Zoro really is happy how he is, if he genuinely is trying to help Sanji into being happy because he's satisfied on his own.


	5. Chapter 5

Sanji likes Bon Clay and his cool imitation powers, right up until the point when he tries to imitate Zoro. Of course to imitate someone he has to touch them.

"I will fucking kill you." Zoro snarls, all three swords drawn as he balances on the railing of the Sunny glaring death at him.

"Don't touch him, he doesn't like it." Luffy warns and Bon Clay's makeup covered face contorts into a wide laugh.

"I've already got my soulmate if he's worried about falling for me! I know I can be... irresistible." Bon Clay says, switching into Nami's form and striking a sexy pose that thoroughly distracts Sanji and very much pisses Nami off.

Bon Clay takes another step towards Zoro and the swordsman growls threateningly and draws back his swords for a strike. Sanji steps in the way.

"Don't." Sanji says firmly.

"I don't need you to defend me shit cook!" Zoro spits the insult at him around his sword.

"No, but he needs me to get between the two of you if he still wants all of his limbs, so here I am." Sanji argues back, looking over his shoulder at the narrow eyed glaring swordsman.

"Ohhh, he's all covered up like that, is it that he doesn't want anyone else to touch him?" Bon Clay says smoothly with a lipstick covered grin.

"That's... pretty much what he was just saying, yeah." Usopp says with a raise of his eyebrow. Despite Usopp and Zoro's early argument about Zoro's stance on his soulmate the two of them get on really well now and Usopp is about as keen as Sanji is to see Zoro touched against his will.

"Is it because his soulmate is jealous about anyone else touching him? A little possessive, huh?" Clay says with a scandalous eyebrow waggle at Sanji.

It takes a moment for Sanji to put two and two together to make four. He then has to go back and recheck the math because that can't be right.

"He's not my soulmate!" Zoro yells for Sanji.

"Damn right!" Sanji agrees loudly.

"Oh ho ho! Have you two ever tested that theory?" the man chuckles, advancing on Sanji and Zoro. The thought of Zoro touching him flashes through his mind for the brief moment before he hears Zoro's swords sheath and then a splash. Sanji turns around and sees Zoro floating in the water by the ship.

"Come and get me now, devil's fruit pervert!" Zoro shouts up and Bon Clay pouts.

When Clay leaves and Vivi realises just who he is they all concoct a scheme to make sure that Clay can't copy them. They mark a cross on their arms and then bandage it to cover it.

"Do I really need to do this as well?" Zoro asks grouchily from where he's leant against the railing, still dripping from his earlier swim.

"He could copy any of us." Nami says with a sigh as she draws hers on.

"But not me." the swordsman reasons.

"No, and that's half the reason that you need to do it. If he knows that he can't copy you and he knows that we know that then he'll likely disguise himself as someone you trust to touch you and then use you to trick us, because we'd think that you can't be copied." Vivi explains verbosely. Zoro squints at her.

"No one that I trust does touch me, that's one of the reasons that I trust them." Zoro says slowly, like Vivi is stupid.

"Don't talk down to the lady." Sanji scolds him.

"Maybe if the lady wasn't being a _moron_." Zoro grumbles.

Sanji leaps to his feet, marker still in hand and gets right up in Zoro's face, just inches from him. He represses the urge to draw on the other man's face. Just.

"Wanna say that again?" Sanji growls, blowing smoke in Zoro's face.

"No." Zoro says quietly, so that only Sanji can hear.

Zoro's hand tangles in Sanji's half open shirt and Sanji's heart seizes in excitement and alarm. He might... have a bit of a crush on Zoro. It's stupid, because nothing will come of it and Zoro absolutely doesn't want anyone like that, much less him. It's probably just his newfound commitment to stop looking so hard for his soulmate frustrating him and his universal desire to have basically anything that he can't have. He's lost count of the number of times as a kid Zeff tried to keep something that Sanji 'shouldn't have' away from him only for it to turn out to be something totally inane so that all of the cooks could laugh at him when he eventually got his hands on it. It's a particular failing of his. Right now, he can't have Zoro and he can't touch Zoro, so naturally he wants it. He's not so irrational now he's older as to chase that but he still wants to. So when Zoro's hand is so SO close to Sanji's bare skin, even if the swordsman is wearing his gloves, and Zoro's face is so close to Sanji's own it's hardly surprising that his heart goes at triple speed.

It distracts him enough that he doesn't react in time to stop Zoro using that grip on his shirt to fling him overboard into the ocean.

When he gets back onto the ship and he and Zoro have a spirited but violent game of chase that ends with two cuts on Sanji's knee, a bootprint on Zoro's shirt, one broken vase and a very pissed off Nami. The pair of them are made to sit on either side of her and Luffy and behave. Sanji sees the way that Nami and Luffy's shoulders brush frequently and he's always seen how Luffy gravitates back to her over and over. Luffy is a touchy person with everyone but with Nami it's the most prominent.

So yeah, he's a little jealous.

Zoro is cowed into taking off his glove, pulling back his white sleeve and drawing a cross on his bare forearm. Sanji's heart is in his throat and it's stupid because 'hot damn bare forearm' shouldn't really do it for him this much but there it is.

"Has no one on the crew ever touched you? Even by accident? What about Luffy?" Vivi asks, turning her big doe eyes on Zoro again.

"No." the man answers abruptly.

"I nearly did one time when I grabbed his neck instead of his shoulder, but I didn't touch his skin." Luffy says aloud.

"Maybe you should just stop grabbing people and throwing them around." Nami says sternly and pulls on Luffy's cheek. Their captain just laughs loudly.

"Who actually was the last person that touched you? You're good enough to have stopped someone as grabby as Luffy for all of this time, so it must have been a really long time, right?" Sanji asks curiously.

Zoro looks at him and Sanji wonders if he's pissed Zoro off, but the other man just looks like he's considering the question.

"It's the same time as when I met you." Zoro says simply and Sanji's eyes grow wide. Did he touch Zoro once without knowing it?

"Not you, moron. Mihawk." Zoro says with a groan and a roll of his eyes.

"When he stabbed me with that knife it cut my shirt open and his hand touched me." Zoro explains and pulls his sleeve back up. He puts his thumb through the hole and picks his glove back up.

"You noticed that over the pain of being stabbed?" Nami asks incredulously.

"I notice everything." Zoro brags.

"You tripped over your own shoes this morning when you were looking for them!" Usopp laughs and Sanji snorts into his hand. Zoro kicks Usopp from across their little circle and flings his glove in Sanji's face.

"You asshole." Sanji grumbles and picks the warm leather glove up out of his lap where it had fell after striking him square in the nose.

"It's kind of a good thing though, don't you think? How awful would it be for Mihawk to be your soulmate when you think about what your dream is?" Sanji grimaces and hands the glove back. Zoro is careful to not let his bare fingers touch Sanji's.

"I was worried about that possibility before." Zoro agrees with a grim nod. Sanji can't think of a much worse time to find your soulmate than when you're standing over their bleeding and possibly dying body.

"Still, before that it had been about five years. But..." Zoro trails off and Sanji sees him shudder. It's as if the thought of real physical touch actually creeps him out. Sanji wonders if that was a thing before he decided logically that no one should touch him or if it's a byproduct of avoiding touch for that long.


	6. Chapter 6

Seeing Zoro in different clothes is really odd. Of course he had to change into different clothes in Alabaster, it was either that or die of heatstroke. Zoro had been finding it tough enough to keep that tightly covered up on the ship which was arguably cooler. So he got new clothes when they landed, along with the rest of thee crew. The gloves are still the same and the trousers and boots are still the same, but underneath that long, loose, light coat Zoro is bare, he's wearing a cloth thing around his head and neck to keep the sun off but Zoro is wearing less clothes than Sanji has ever seen him wearing and he lives with the man! He can see Zoro's bare throat and when Zoro moves just right he can see his bare arms in the long sleeves. The coat clearly isn't meant to be buttoned up and Sanji wants to unbutton it for him pretty badly. He wants to press his lips to Zoro's throat. He wants a lot of things that he can't have.

In the desert night when they're all gathered around the fire Sanji strikes off on his own for a bit. He needs to clear his head and smoke. They've got this whole civil war thing going on and he just needs a little bit of time to himself. He doesn't get it though.

"So you've stopped trying to feel up everyone that you meet." Zoro announces from behind him, making Sanji jump. Zoro is irritatingly quiet on sand.

"What of it?" Sanji grouses and sits down. Zoro follows suit and sits next to him.

"It's interesting." Zoro says simply.

"You're not allowed to mock me for this. If you do I swear I will put this cigarette out on your arm." Sanji threatens and Zoro's eyes narrow as if he's trying to figure out if Sanji really means that. When he works it out it would be great if he could let Sanji know because he's not so sure himself.

"Okay." Zoro says after a few moments.

"I think- I think you might have a point." He admits to the sand dune across the way because it's easier than looking at Zoro when he says it.

"You're not going to let people touch you either?" Zoro asks with obvious surprise.

"I'm not going that far. But I'm going to stop looking. I have a dream to follow and..." Sanji trails off.

He rubs the back of his neck uncomfortably and stares down at his knees. Zoro isn't going to press him for details, he isn't that kind of person, but Sanji can feel the waves of his curiosity coming off of him.

"I can see how I could be... a lot of work. I know I'm not fucking perfect, I mean, I'm better than _you_ -" Sanji says, turning to Zoro with a grin. The other man flips him off but keeps listening.

"But, I'm probably not going to be as good as my soulmate imagined. So maybe you're right. For once. Possibly. Maybe I need to deal with my shit on my own before I find them." He admits grudgingly. He takes a last drag on his cigarette and then flicks it through the air to land on the sand.

He breathes the smoke out in one smooth stream and somehow feels a little lighter for admitting that. He and Zoro don't always get on, okay they _frequently_ don't get on, but they respect each other and Zoro's not going to tell anyone what he just said.

"That's a big thing to admit. I didn't think you'd be that smart." Zoro says after a few moments, he sounds stunned.

"Oh fuck you." Sanji snaps at him.

"Don't be so sensitive." the other man groans and shuffles closer to him in the sand.

"Well you're gonna be a lot less impressed. I'm still selfish, I still want to meet them. I know it'd be bad but... I just want someone who'd love me despite all that." he admits, drawing thoughtless patterns in the sand.

"You don't need a soulmate for that." Zoro tells him quietly.

"Yeah I do. I could be with someone who isn't my soulmate, I know that I can love someone who isn't my soulmate, but it wouldn't work." He sighs morosely. Being around Zoro tells him that much. Zoro isn't his soulmate but he still wants _him_.

"Bullshit." the swordsman snaps at him.

"It's not! If I was with someone else one of us would break it off when we met our soulmate and that's a shitty thing to happen to me or to them, I don't want to hurt someone like that!" He retorts hotly.

"Or the other option is I could be with someone who has a platonic soulmate but that's unlikely to work, either they're not interested in anyone like that," He says, pointing at Luffy in the distance. "Or I could be with someone and if it doesn't work out then _their_ platonic soulmate would murder me." He adds, pointing to Nami. If Luffy ever did get involved with someone and it went south he'd bet Zoro's entire debt that there would be a smoking lightning crater where they used to stand. Nami is a delicate precious lady but she is not someone that any reasonable person should trifle with. The same goes for the other way around, it would be either a very brave or very stupid person to take that chance with either of those two.

"That's not your only choice." Zoro replies and Sanji rolls his eyes at him.

"Yeah, I could be with someone whose soulmate has died and then be compared to their perfect person and everyone can be miserable. That sounds like a great plan." Sanji says sarcastically. His hair tickles his nose and he blows it away with an irritated breath. Great, even his own body is annoying him now.

"You're the biggest idiot that I know." Zoro says despairingly. Zoro pulls the neck part of his stupid headgear up to his eyes as if he can hide in there to escape Sanji's supposed idiocy.

"Hey, fuck you, I'm-"

Sanji is cut off when Zoro leans in and kisses him. Between them there's just the fabric of Zoro's stupid headscarf but oh he can feel Zoro's lips against his own and Sanji's whole body trembles. Zoro is starting to pull away with uncertainty when Sanji desperately leans in and rejoins their contact. For the life of him he wants to deepen that kiss, to slide his tongue against Zoro's but that's obviously not going to happen. Though their kiss remains necessarily chase it still makes Sanji's heart hammer in his chest.

Zoro pulls away after what seems like forever and not nearly long enough all at once. He drops the fabric away from his face and watches Sanji carefully.

"You kissed me." Sanji states in numb shock.

"Yes." Zoro agrees.

"YOU kissed me." Sanji says, his brain still trying to wrap around the idea.

"...Yes." Zoro responds again, his eyes narrowing at Sanji.

"You KISSED me!" Sanji exclaims a little louder. Fuck, Zoro... He figured that nothing would ever... holy shit. Holy SHIT!

"I know, I was there." Zoro groans, falling back on the sand with his gloved hands on his face.

Sanji's hand hovers over his mouth, not even daring to touch his mouth with his fingers. Zoro...

"I never thought... Zoro." Sanji breathes.

He moves suddenly, leaning over Zoro's body with one hand by the other man's head. Zoro moves his hands and looks up at Sanji with wide eyes and Sanji can see the slight trace of worry on his features.

"Were you just proving a point there or were you serious? Because... I'd... I thought that nothing would ever come of my... I've wanted you for a long time you know... but with your touch thing I thought that... Do you mean that?" Sanji babbles with both confusion and hope vying for place in his chest.

"Complete sentences you idiot." Zoro sighs and reaches up to flick Sanji in the forehead.

"Cut that out." Sanji snaps, grabbing Zoro's hand and realizing that Zoro's sleeve has fallen down and Zoro's bare arm is exposed. He warily lets Zoro go. Zoro is trusting him here and he doesn't want to fuck this up by accident.

"Are you offering a relationship with me here Zoro? I'm serious." Sanji asks, watching Zoro carefully.

"Like I'd do that if I wasn't." the other man answers him with a scowl.

Sanji breathes in awe and he knows that he's probably shaking a little. Is this really real? He reaches up carefully and tugs on Zoro's headscarf and leans in to kiss Zoro again. He runs his hands up Zoro's side and thinks to himself that he seriously needs to invest in gloves so that he can see more of Zoro's bare skin.

For a fleeting moment he thinks that he doesn't want to meet his soulmate if he can have this. Zoro isn't going to get in the way of his dream and he wouldn't do that to Zoro either. On the contrary they're both gonna kick the other in the ass all of the way towards their dream if they have to, not that they will need to. Zoro is trusting him with so much here and Sanji never wants to betray that by meeting his soulmate. That's the most fucked up thing that he's ever thought, but with him and Zoro so close and breathing each other's air in the cold desert he finds that he can't quite bring himself to care all that much.


	7. Chapter 7

Sanji invests in at least three pairs of gloves, he has one pair on him at all times, one pair hidden in the galley and one rather optomistically in the storeroom. Sanji catches Zoro rubbing his arm in an absent minded soothing of pain. Sanji stalks up behind him and grabs the back of Zoro's haramaki and jerks him back in the room, kicking the door shut after him.

"I think that injury from Enel's lightning is still bothering you." He says slyly.

"I could say the same to you." Zoro points out and Sanji may or may not be covered in his own electric burns and bruises. That's irrelevant though.

"I think I should check that out for you. Heat helps injuries heal so I'll warm that up for you, just in case." Sanji says with a waggle of his eyebrows as he pulls off Zoro's glove.

"Hey!" Zoro protests but Sanji reaches around into his own back pocket and pulls out his pair of thin silk black gloves.

"When did you..." Zoro starts to ask in wide eyed surprise. Sanji lets him go and pulls the thin gloves on with a smug grin.

"At the earliest fucking opportunity." He answers.

"That's... you pervert." Zoro says in a voice that sounds a little more impressed than he probably intends.

Sanji tugs the pair of the back to the table and Sanji straddles the bench with Zoro following him and doing the same. Sanji shuffles close to him so that their knees are pressed together. His hands return to Zoro's and he decides that this is much better. He can feel the detail of Zoro's palm under his fingers, he can more clearly feel the warmth of Zoro's skin, he wants all of it. Sanji's gloves run a little way up his wrists so he doesn't worry too much about accidental contact. He raises an eyebrow at Zoro, his fingers on the sleeve of Zoro's shirt where it hooks over his thumb. Zoro nods slightly, watching Sanji's hands.

Sanji unhooks Zoro's skintight shirt and rolls it up his arm. The material of it is tight but stretches easily. He looks at Zoro's arm and he can still see how the shocks and bruises have discolored Zoro's skin every so slightly, the skin a little red and angry still. Zoro's clothes didn't protect him much more than Sanji's did in Skypeia. He'll start with Zoro's arm and maybe if he's lucky he can move on to the rest of him. He runs his thumb over the largest injured area on his arm and presses his palm to it, warming Zoro with his touch. He's careful and watches Zoro for any signs of pain but they both know that this arm thing is just an excuse.

He trails fingers up the inside of Zoro's forearm, on the delicate and never exposed skin. He lets his fingertips stroke Zoro's wrist and run over his palm.

"It's not fair, your skin never sees the light of day and you're still more tan than me." Sanji mutters.

"I guess you'll be pale and pasty for life." Zoro teases him quietly.

"I am not pasty. Idiot, you take your skin for granted and you don't even appreciate how much effort I go through to make sure you get enough vitamin D." he responds with a scowl.

"I appreciate plenty." Zoro sighs in an incredibly put upon manner and reaches forward, his gloved hand wrapping around Sanji's back and yanking him closer. Sanji nearly falls and has to hook his leg around Zoro's so that his knee is at Zoro's hip. Zoro leaves his bare arm face up for Sanji, as it is the sudden shift in balance has made him grip onto it tightly, he deliberately tries to relax it but fails. Sanji steels his nerves as Zoro leans in and flicks Sanji's jacket open and Sanji does his best to remain still and not fuck it up as Zoro works. Zoro moves his hand up Sanji's side through his remaining glove and Sanji's shirt, the noise that Sanji makes is probably too overexcited for such a simple gesture but no one has ever touched him with this kind of reverence and intent before and of all people it's the touch averse Zoro that is doing it.

Sanji looks down just as Zoro looks up at him and their faces are so very close to each other and Sanji wants to kiss him so badly that he could scream and Zoro doesn't have a convenient headdress of Alabastan clothing this time. Zoro's eyes flit down to Sanji's mouth and Sanji watches as Zoro's lips part and he leans forward ever so slightly before catching himself. Sanji takes in a shuddering breath but stays still. He really wants Zoro to break his vow and kiss him anyway but he knows that it's not going to happen. Zoro clenches his teeth and moves back a little with agitation plain on his features.

"Guess I'm not the only one frustrated about that." He murmurs and leans in towards Zoro. He doesn't go for Zoro's mouth though, instead he kisses the thin neck of Zoro's shirt and the swordsman makes a pleased kind of sound. Zoro's bare hand comes to Sanji's hip and he hauls him closer still so that Sanji is sitting in Zoro's lap for real now. Sanji has one hand on Zoro's side and one on his shoulder and he's-

"Oh!" A quiet exclamation from the door.

The two of them jerk apart in shock, thankfully not bumping into each other. Sanji stares in mortification, scrambling off of Zoro's lap as he stares at Robin.

"I- we weren't-" He blurts out.

"We weren't touching." Zoro insists, despite the fact that Sanji still has his knees over Zoro's legs.

"Sorry." Robin says with a trace of a smile and shuts the door behind her.

The air between Zoro and Sanji becomes thick with awkwardness and the pair of them disentangle themselves from each other. All the same Sanji is sure that even as he's buttoning his jacket back up and Zoro is putting his glove back on they'll be back at this before too long.


	8. Chapter 8

The way out of Skypeia drops them in a fucking military base because their luck sucks. But like all things luck comes and goes. He and Luffy end up disguising themselves as chefs in the military base and he gets dragged into a cooking match with a beautiful woman named Jessica. She's a chef and though she wastes food he's able to prove to her that she shouldn't. He shows off his talent and for a moment or two everything seems perfect. He's about to shake her hand in recognition of a match well won when he pauses. She is a chef, just like him. She would probably approve of chasing a chef's dream of All Blue, especially if he explained it to her. She's already stationed away from where her family are so she likely wouldn't mind traveling and it's not as if marines have never become pirates or pirates become marines. Theoretically they're a good fit, their lives line up, she's pretty and they have so much in common. If he touches her and they're soulmates things could go well, it could be what he wants without risking his dream.

She could be his soulmate.

All he needs to do to find out is to touch her, to reach out and shake her hand as a congratulation for their match. It's easy. That way he's know, even if she isn't he'll know that it isn't her and he won't think about it again. But she could be, it could be her.

His mind ghosts back to Zoro, to the few times when they've been together with hands over each other's bodies, so nearly kissing and clearly both wanting it but not. A flash of guilt runs through him, what would Zoro think if he found his soulmate? Surely he couldn't be with her and with him, not unless they're platonic which he doubts. Can he really just drop this thing that they have between them? It feels so good even though it's fragile and new. On the other hand if she is his soulmate then surely she'll not like Zoro at all with their shared past.

He thinks of touching Zoro's skin and how he aches to do it, an ache almost as great as that at the edge of his soul where his soulmate is missing. But if it is a smaller ache then surely he should take her hand and see, denying himself that would be madness if he wants his soulmate more than he wants Zoro. He has to do it.

He moves his hand away from hers and makes a dramatic swooping bow before her, he thanks her for their match. He thanks her without ever touching her skin. He doesn't need to turn around to see Luffy watching him and he knows that his captain knows just what he did. They don't have much time to think though because it turns out that the lovely chef Jessica asks them to deliver a plate of food to her husband and they get their cover blown and they have to run. Unless she married a man who wasn't her soulmate then there was no chance that she was his but he had thought that she was and still decided not to touch her.

The pair of them sprint through the marine base, everyone is heading to the dock that the Merry is in, except for Robin, Zoro and Usopp. The reason for Zoro and Usopp's lack of movement is because the morons have only gone and got themselves captured and locked in jail. Usopp is sat cuffed and Zoro is cuffed at both the legs and the wrists, clearly the marines really didn't want Zoro moving anywhere.

"Do you think that they were overdoing it with the cuffs there Zoro?" Sanji grins at him.

"No. If they wanted to stop me they should have used more." Zoro retorts with an offended sniff.

"Less would have been better for me though." Zoro grunts and leans back against the cave wall.

"I'll get you ouuuuuuut, nooooooo..." Luffy moans, sliding down off of the bars and onto the floor into a boneless heap. Sanji rolls his eyes and kicks Luffy's hands away from the obviously sea stone bars.

"I'll handle this." Sanji sighs and turns around to face the bars again. He shifts his weight onto one leg and kicks at the bars with a clang. It'll take him a little while to get through them, he just hopes that no one hears them before he's done. Well, if they do Luffy should be able to take care of them, provided that he doesn't touch the bars again.

"Who's. Your. friend?" Sanji asks in staccato bursts between kicks.

"He's a marine, he's a top level guy, he knew who we are so we lied and said he was one of us. They found him unconscious but he woke up!" Usopp exclaims and Sanji suspects that the 'we' part of 'we lied' is entirely down to Usopp and Zoro probably just went along with it.

"I see you fixed that problem of him waking up." Sanji grunts as he kicks the bars again. They're bending in but he needs them to actually break through, it'll still take a little while. Whoever put these in knew what they were doing, they used the natural features of the underground cave that the dungeon is set in to make it harder to get in or out.

"Yeah, Zoro headbutted him, he touched him! Well, with his face, on his face, at very high speeds. I don't think he's waking up for a while." Usopp trails off.

Zoro... Zoro touched someone. He made skin contact with someone for the first time since Mihawk and it's with some MARINE?! Sanji slams his foot into the bars and they fly across the cave and slam into the wall. He stalks inside and breaks Usopp's cuffs with a kick, the sharpshooter is nervous at how close Sanji came to his hands but babbles immediately afterwards that he wasn't at all, even though no one accused him of it.

Sanji turns to Zoro and sees the slightly red area on his forehead, changed colour by the blood of the man who now has a nose like a pancake. Zoro risked everything to touch him, even if it was out of violence. He took a gamble that this guy might be his soulmate and decided that it was worth it, that he wasn't enough of a threat in the long term compared to how he was in the short term. Zoro let his skin come into contact with this marine's skin yet he won't touch Sanji at all.

Zoro looks up at him and Sanji doesn't know if Zoro can read him but right now Sanji doesn't care. He raises his leg and smashes his foot into Zoro's cuffs around his wrists.

"Zoro, your swords!" Usopp calls, appearing in the hole in the bars and throwing Zoro's confiscated swords at him. Zoro catches them and quickly divests himself of the cuffs around his legs.

"Let's go." Sanji says stiffly and turns on his heel, stalking off to find the ship. The others are behind him and Zoro doesn't say anything about his contact with the marine, nothing at all. Maybe Zoro is just keeping quiet until they're alone but right now Sanji isn't sure if he wants to be alone with Zoro. It helps his hurt and frustration that he's able to kick the shit out of every marine that he sees on the way, but it doesn't fix how he feels. If Zoro just took a chance on him then they could touch each other, their relationship could be something more. Does Zoro not trust him for that? Does he really think that he would get in the way of Zoro's dream? He would never do that to Zoro, ever. He's respected Zoro's boundaries because they're concrete, but apparently they aren't as inflexible as he had thought.

They're following the log pose to the next island before too long and in all honesty the Merry isn't holding up so well, she's cracked and barely holding it together. Sanji feels a lot of empathy for that right now, he is experiencing the same thing. He served dinner to his crew, doing his utmost to appear normal but evidently it's not good enough because Luffy and Nami linger after dinner.

"Sanji..." Nami says slowly, getting to her feet.

"What can I do for you, my glorious sunbeam?" Sanji responds, turning around with a bright and totally fake smile. She is standing near the line where the kitchen meets the galley and she's watching him carefully. Luffy is still sucking up crumbs and leftovers from other people's plates but somehow Sanji knows that Luffy is paying strict attention to them too.

He really shouldn't be surprised that Luffy shared that information with Nami, the pair of them are soulmates and to Sanji's knowledge they tend to share more or less all information. Luffy always has the wellbeing of the crew in his heart and he can be incredibly perceptive at times, between him and Nami's keen eyes and ears on the crew they know more or less everything. The only way that Luffy could know more was if Robin was his soulmate instead and she used her powers to place eyes and ears everywhere. Either way, if both of them are here talking to him about this then they've deemed this matter important enough for them to intervene.

He and Zoro haven't announced their relationship, if it was that. Sanji doesn't know what Zoro had thought of him before this, he had thought that they cared for each other, Sanji had been falling in love with that idiot swordsman because Sanji is clearly a moron. Even so the crew knows about it because Robin had walked in on them before and Usopp caught them at one point too. That and Sanji is willing to admit that he has a habit of staring at Zoro and apparently when it comes to his attractions his face is very much an open book.

Nami is asking him questions and Sanji doesn't need to be a brain surgeon to work out why.

"Luffy told me that back at that base you avoided touching someone." Nami says smoothly, her voice not a question, just a statement. A statement that subtly encourages him to give more information, whether he really wants to or not.

"I've not been going out of my way to touch people a lot lately." He answers with a shrug.

"She was a chef, and a woman." Luffy says from around the fork in his mouth.

"And pretty too from what I hear. And I can bet that you were fawning over her." Nami adds in with a raise of a perfect eyebrow. Damn his reputation preceding him.

"Beautiful women should be told that-" He tries to say but Nami silences him with a wave of her hand and a displeased look on her face.

"Cut it Sanji. Zoro on the other hand headbutted a guy today and essentially touched him. I can't help but notice that you're treating him differently now, so don't try to tell me that those two things aren't related." She says sternly.

Sanji stares at the floor and bites his lip, he really wishes that he had a cigarette right now but if he tries to light one now he'll no doubt upset Nami for being evasive and he never wants to upset the wonderful Nami.

"This isn't going to interfere with the crew if that's what the two of you are asking." He says to his shoes.

"I know you wouldn't let that happen." Luffy says with an easy shrug as Sanji looks up at him. Luffy has his damn feet on the table now and Sanji just resists shouting at him for it.

"I want to know if you're okay Sanji, if you and Zoro are okay." Nami says softly, looking at him with big worried eyes that Sanji can't say no to.

"I don't know how I feel. As for me and Zoro... go ask him." He says quietly and he thinks that he can see Nami's heart break a little for him.

There must be something really wrong with him because she hugs him and he doesn't lose his mind over it. Instead he just lets her tuck her head under his chin and closes his eyes for a moment. Nami is warm and he can feel the warmth of her scalp through his skin, he's touching her and that's more than Zoro has given him. He and Zoro have had their hands all over each other many times and it's felt intense, if teasing because of the limits of it. Was that just for fun for Zoro? The swordsman is rarely one to do things thoughtlessly like that, he doesn't think that Zoro would just pursue what they had out of boredom, Zoro isn't like that. But he's not even spoken to Sanji, not apologised or shown any recognition that Sanji might be hurt over Zoro coming into contact with that marine instead of him. If anything it's that which hurts more than Zoro's contact with the marine, that Zoro hasn't noticed or doesn't care about how he feels about it.

"Goodnight Sanji." Nami says softly and pecks him on the cheek before excusing herself from the room.

"Do you have any more food?" Luffy asks after a moment or two.

"OUT." Sanji barks at him and Luffy flashes him a smile before hightailing it out of the door.

Sanji sighs shakily and leans against the counter. He turns the water on and for a moment he just stares at it and mentally feels out for that fractured part of himself, the place in his soul where his soulmate fits in. He feels incomplete and he aches for it. Zoro had numbed that ache but now it's back in full force and he doesn't know if he misses the soulmate that he's never met more than he misses what he thought that he had with Zoro. He supposes it's possible that neither of them really know him.

He clenches his fists takes a deep breath, this time he does light a cigarette and then starts to wash the dishes and pans from dinner. The monotony of the task distracts him just enough to soothe him, only eventually he'll run out of dishes. When that happens Zoro will still be on the ship and that ache will still be there. For now though, he has dishes.


	9. Chapter 9

"You can't make them talk." Luffy's voice reaches him through the night air. Zoro turns his head and sees Luffy and Nami off to the side of the ship, leaning against Nami's trees. Luffy reaches up and snags one of the fruits and starts eating it without batting an eyelid. Nami and Luffy aren't hugely openly affectionate with each other but it's small things like that which show how they really feel, Nami would skewer anyone else with the business end of her staff if they tried that. Nami doesn't so much as bat an eyelid when Luffy eats her fruit, she seems more put off at his words. Zoro knows what they're talking about.

He turns his back on them and stares back out at the sea. He knows that he's more than likely going to get a talk but if it's from anyone it'll be from Nami. Luffy lets the crew get on with their own relationships as long as they're not a detriment to the crew as a whole or unless they're really hurting each other. He's never cared about his and Sanji's fights beyond finding them amusing because neither of them want to kill the other.

Zoro is startled out of his line of thinking when Luffy drops down onto the deck of the ship next to him. The captain swings his rubbery legs through the railing of the Merry and Zoro takes a moment to see if there's any easy way that Luffy can slip overboard like that, he doesn't really feel like a nighttime swim to rescue him.

"Nami sent you then." Zoro states unhappily.

"Nah." Luffy answers easily.

Zoro glances over his shoulder and sees Nami stalking off irritably. He supposes that she didn't then.

"I knew it wasn't going to be that guy." Zoro insists and Luffy makes a noise to indicate that he heard him, but not much else. Zoro doesn't know if Luffy was trying to get him to talk or not when he sat down but he feels like he should say that.

"I can still feel him on my skin." he adds, scrubbing at his forehead for at least the tenth time that night. He's aware of the point of contact that he had with the high up marine, it may as well be glowing on his face and the whole thing makes his skin crawl. He doesn't like touching other people, it took him long enough to touch the crew even through his clothes. He detests doing even that much with people that he doesn't trust, much less having actual skin contact. It's stupid really, but he's given himself some kind of complex about it after being so careful about it for so long.

"But I had to." He adds firmly.

"Okay." Luffy shrugs and spits a seed out over the side of the ship.

Zoro sits in silence for a few minutes with Luffy next to him, still eating the last of his fruit. The uncomfortable feeling of being scrutinized crawls over his skin and he doesn't know if it's his own conscience or if Robin and Nami are watching him from the shadows.

"If I touch Sanji everything will change." He blurts out eventually.

"I guess." Luffy shrugs and gets to his feet.

"Are you gonna take up sniping too? Cause Usopp's better at it than you." Luffy says easily and wanders off down into the men's bunk room.

Did... did Luffy just accuse him of being a coward?

Zoro grits his teeth, Luffy isn't wrong. He should just go and talk to Sanji. No matter how unpleasant it's going to be.

He steels himself and opens the door to the kitchen. Sanji is stood at the sink washing dishes and he doesn't give a single sign that he even heard Zoro come in the room, that's not a good start. He takes a breath and walks over to Sanji's side. Sanji glances over at him but says nothing and just continues washing. It's not even like the blond is ignoring him like a spiteful kid. Sanji's acting like nothing is wrong even though Zoro has been able to tell all night that something is. Even if he hadn't the mere indication that Luffy and Nami are involved makes that plain. Nami meddles more than Luffy but for them both to get in on the act, however passively it was in Luffy's case, means that they think it's serious too.

"You're mad at me." He states and realises his mistake. Sanji didn't look mad before, but now he does.

"I'm sorry." He says quickly before Sanji can attempt to drown him in the sink.

Sanji's head turns slightly towards him, Zoro can't see his expression because his hair is in the way but he knows that Sanji is watching him.

"What for?" Sanji asks calmly.

"Sorry that I pissed you off. I headbutted that guy because I had to but I get that you're pissed because I technically touched his skin and haven't touched yours." He answers.

"That is the worst non-apology that I've ever heard. You didn't apologise for shit, you're saying sorry because I'm hurt, not because of anything that you did. That's not an apology." Sanji snaps at him. He drops the plate that he was washing back into the sudsy water and wipes his hands dry on the apron still around his waist. Sanji turns and faces him, a glare plastered on his face.

"You don't have anything to apologise for anyway. Who you touch or don't is up to you, for whatever reasons you decide. It's none of my business." Sanji adds and folds him arms.

Zoro opens his mouth and then shuts it again. Sanji isn't trying to guilt him into anything. He's not pointing out the very reasonable fact that Sanji has gone well out of his way to avoid making skin contact because Zoro hasn't wanted Sanji to do that, he's not using the effort that he's been through to make him feel bad. He's not acting like he's entitled to anything. Dammit, now Zoro feels worse, Sanji's not being an ass about this at all.

"There was almost no chance that he was my soulmate." He says.

"Sure." Sanji says with a shrug, like he couldn't care less.

"I don't like touching people because I don't like the idea of them being my soulmate." Zoro explains.

"Yes. I know. You've said that before, a lot." Sanji responds flatly.

"Shut up." He shoots back out of habit, though Sanji doesn't look amused.

"But maybe I should touch you." Zoro says slowly and thoughtfully.

"Uh uh. No way." Sanji denies him, ducking backwards out of his reach.

"You're not touching me because you feel bad for hurting my feelings, if that's what you think that you've done. I told you, it's your business who you touch and don't, not mine." Sanji hisses at him, his foot in Zoro's chest.

"Yeah, it is my business, not yours. If I decide that I want to touch you then that's my decision. You can tell me that you don't want me to but don't tell me that I don't want to, I know what I want." He growls, shoving the cook's leg aside and getting closer to him.

Sanji stares at him wide eyed and Zoro slowly moves closer to the blond, eventually backing him up against the wall.

"If you don't want me to then say so." He says quietly and leans in a little closer. If he's going to touch Sanji then it'll be in the way that he's been longing to. Every time he's had his covered hands over Sanji's bare skin he's fought the urge to just kiss the stupid chef.

He moves in slowly and Sanji doesn't stop him. He hears the hitch of Sanji's breath just before his lips touch Sanji's for real without anything in the way. Sanji gasps and leans into it a little, his tongue swiping quickly against Zoro's as the kiss goes a little deeper than he'd intended it to. Finally kissing Sanji feels great, but it's just that, a kiss. He pulls back with a overwhelming feeling of regret covering him, so much so that he's surprised it's not physically dripping off of him.

"You're not my soulmate." Sanji says softly and Zoro knows that it's true. The place in the back of his mind that always feels ragged and empty, no matter how much he denies it to himself and others, remains just as bereft as before. Kissing Sanji might have ignited a desire to do it again and again as many times as Sanji will let him, but there's no bright flare in his being, there's no sense of fate and rightness.

They aren't soulmates.

"That's why I didn't want to do it." He says regretfully and steps back.

"What? You just said that you did! You kissed ME!" Sanji says hotly, his face a picture of offense.

"No, I-" Zoro shakes his head, he's not being clear, "I wanted to touch you, to do that. I just..."

"You what? You regret it now? At least now you can touch me without fear that I'm your soulmate." Sanji says, thoroughly pissed off. His arms are crossed and his balance has even shifted like he's going to kick him.

"I wanted it to be you!" Zoro yells, his restraint breaking.

The words hang in the air between him and Sanji. The cook looks stunned and Zoro wishes that he could eat the words back up and pretend that he didn't just shout that at the other man.

"You... what?" Sanji says in a stunned and quiet voice.

"Don't be a bigger idiot than you already are. You're not going to get in the way of my dream, if anything you'll help me get there. I want you and I know that you feel the same, and sure we argue all of the time but I like that!" He shouts, anger and frustration washing over him.

"I wanted it to be you." He repeats quietly.

"I knew there was a chance that I wasn't, but if I didn't touch you then neither of us would know for sure." He adds unhappily.

He shuts his eyes and bangs his head against one of Sanji's cupboards. Now he knows at least. He can't just un-know it because he doesn't like what he found out.

"Zoro..." Sanji says in a quiet and almost pleading voice. Zoro opens his eyes and Sanji's expression is broken and almost guilty.

"I'm not your soulmate. That means that someone out there is and then when you find them then this..." He gestures between them. He doesn't even need to finish that sentence. Sanji and he will be over, even if Sanji stays with him now. The blond might change his mind now that he knows for sure, he might want to keep himself pristine for his soulmate or some shit like that. Even if they do stay together the added bonus of being able to really touch each other is massively outweighed by the eventual pain of when Sanji finds his actual soulmate. Sanji won't leave him out of malice, actually he knows Sanji enough to be sure that he'll feel awful about it, but that person will be perfect for Sanji and Zoro just isn't.

Sanji looks like he doesn't know what to say. Eventually he seems to settle on something though because he starts to speak, slowly and softly.

"Today at the marine base I met a woman. She was tall and beautiful, heavenly to look at. She was a chef too, she cared about her food and she was very skilled, she wasted food though and when I argued with her about it we ended up in a cooking competition to prove my point. I won and I was going to shake her hand, it's the polite thing to do when you win after all. I was going to but I changed my mind at the last minute, I could have touched her and I didn't. All I was thinking about was you." He says quietly.

Zoro feels like he just swallowed a lead brick.

"What? You should have! What if she's your soulmate and you missed her? Sure she's a marine but plenty of them switch sides. Maybe you want this now but you'll regret it and-" He protests but Sanji kicks him in the knee.

"And you were bitching at me for trying to act like I could tell you what you wanted? Don't be a hypocrite. I didn't want to touch her, so I didn't. Not that it matters, she was married so it obviously wasn't me, but I didn't know that then." Sanji says flatly.

Zoro's heart is in his throat, he doesn't know what to say.

"Nothing needs to change. Well, except you not having to wear gloves or clothes when we're on our own." Sanji grins lecherously.

"Uh, if you want that, I mean. I know you don't like people touching you so-" Sanji adds, becoming flustered.

Zoro cuts him off from any more bullshit by pulling Sanji forward and kissing him. He knows that he's setting himself up for heartbreak down the line. Sanji will find his soulmate someday and it'll hurt like someone ripped his actual heart out. Right now he can't make himself care enough about it or be smart enough to resist this. For now at least he has Sanji. For now.


	10. Chapter 10

Zoro is a dumbass, which is something that everyone knew already. Specifically in this instance he's a dumbass because the day after their first real kiss he takes his glove off at the breakfast table and looks at his hand that, except for his shirt sleeve, is bare. Sanji watches him with curious and suspicious eyes as Zoro wiggles his fingers like he's never seen them before.

"Hey, Chopper," Zoro says slowly and the little reindeer looks up at Zoro, distracted from putting entirely too much maple syrup on his pancakes.

"Do you always wear gloves when you're doing medical shit with me? I know that you usually do but I've passed out before when I've been injured and it's been an emergency so I'm curious." Zoro asks, looking at him.

"I- I- didn't really want to mention it, but yes I had to give you medical attention without gloves once, it was that or let you bleed to death! I don't know if I count though, I don't know if I have a soulmate, it's not like I'm fully human or anything! I'm really sorry!" Chopper whimpers with a flustered and anxious flailing of limbs.

"Don't apologise, I'd rather be alive." Zoro shrugs easily.

"I thought that would bother you more." Usopp says in surprise, his eyebrows rising up.

"Me too." Zoro says thoughtfully and stares at his hand a little more. The rest of the crew in the room is quiet and curious, watching Zoro with interest.

Sanji sees the slow clunking process of an idea going through Zoro's head. It's like watching someone push a rock uphill. A mossy, stupid rock.

"Hey, Usopp." Zoro says slowly.

The sharpshooter looks at Zoro curiously but his curiosity turns to stunned shock when Zoro reaches across the breakfast table and pokes the tip of Usopp's long nose with the tip of his bare finger.

"Robin." Is all of the warning that the archeologist gets before Zoro taps her on her bare shoulder with his uncovered hand.

"Hm, I thought not." Zoro says with an absent shrug.

There are a few moments of stunned silence before the room explodes into shocked exclamations and overlapping questions and expressions of shock.

"Are you TOUCHING people now?!" Usopp exclaims in shock, his voice cutting through the others.

"Curious, were you simply testing with us so that you can rule us out or is that everyone?" Robin asks with a much calmer level of curiosity.

"Not everyone, just the crew." Zoro answers with obvious disgust on his face.

"Does that mean that we can touch you now too or were you just testing?" Nami asks and tilts her head curiously.

"I don't know. Maybe. It didn't feel as bad as I thought it would." Zoro says thoughtfully, looking down at his hand again.

"That's really different to how you reacted when you headbutted that marine, you looked like you were going to hurl!" Usopp laughs loudly.

Sanji... didn't know that. He'd assumed that Zoro's contact with the marine, the one that had started this whole thing, hadn't bothered him and that it was just a needed attack. Zoro didn't tell him that it had felt unpleasant to him, Sanji had just assumed that since Zoro had been treating it like it wasn't worth mentioning that it wasn't. For Sanji it would just be an attack but for Zoro obviously it was more.

"You didn't touch Sanji though, maybe he's your soulmate!" Chopper pipes up excitedly.

Zoro deliberately doesn't look at Sanji and he seems to struggle to come up with an answer. Sanji pushes his chair back and takes a cigarette from the pack in his pocket. He mumbles some excuse of needing to smoke and goes outside, not that he usually bothers to do so, his usual argument is that it's his kitchen and he'll smoke in there if he wants to.

The nicotine does soothe his nerves and staring out at the ocean finishes the job, leaving him calm again. He hadn't wanted to stick around for the explanation for _that_ question. What it doesn't soothe though is the ache at the edge of his soul. He hadn't considered before that he might be Zoro's soulmate, for some reason it hadn't occurred to him. Maybe that was a sign all on its own that he wasn't. Since Zoro had admitted with sorrow in his voice that he had wanted to be Sanji's soulmate Sanji hasn't felt quite right.

He hadn't thought of it before and now he knows that he's not. That should be the end of it, he should be happy that now he gets to kiss Zoro. He should be happy that before breakfast today Zoro had slipped into the kitchen and kissed him again, stealing Sanji's breath away and making his heart flutter. He is happy for that, if only partially. But there's still that ache at the edge of his soul and he wishes that it wasn't there. He wishes that it wasn't obvious that he's with Zoro and that ache is still there because no matter how much he has been falling for Zoro he isn't his soulmate. He wishes that the ache wasn't there at all and maybe he's a little slow but he wishes that it was Zoro too. He wishes that Zoro was his soulmate.

But he's not.


	11. Chapter 11

Sanji smoothly walks up to Robin, a tray on his hand. He bows graciously at her and sets a coffee in a delicate cup by her side along with a selection of shortbread with lavender sugar on them.

"How very kind Sanji, thank you." Robin smiles, breaking off a small piece of the shortbread with dainty fingers and tasting it with a smile on her face. Sanji lingers uncertainly for a moment or two, spinning the tray around between his hands. He wants to ask the question that's burning in his mind but he's not sure if he should or if he even really wants to know the answer.

Robin looks up at him from her book that she had innocently continued reading, clearly not intending on being bothered by Sanji, even if they are in the galley together.

"Is there something that I can help you with Sanji?" She asks him with interest on her face.

"Oh... well, I wouldn't want to bother you my sweet flower." Sanji mumbles. He can't just bother Robin with his every problem, a lady shouldn't have to pander to what he wants.

"Please, it's no trouble. Sit." Robin smiles and pats her hand on the bench. Sanji hesitates before concluding that it would be wrong to deny a lady a direct request like that.

"What's on your mind?" She asks him genially.

"Well, forgive me for troubling you, but I know that you have a vast and admirable knowledge of history." He says and Robin smiles at him, at least slightly flattered by his words.

"I was wondering if... if there were any examples in history of soulmates touching for the first time but nothing happening? For example perhaps it has to take a while because maybe it happened sooner than it should have or it simply takes a while to click in and have that magical moment where you match or-" He says, listing off all of the reasons and ideas that have been going through his head since Zoro had said that he wished that he had been Sanji's soulmate.

"I take it that you are referring to your contact with our resident swordsman?" Robin says, cutting over his questions that had started to ramble on desperately.

Sanji taps his toes on the floor in agitation, his polished shoes making a click-click-click noise as he does it.

"W-well I wouldn't-" he starts to flounder.

"I'm sure a gentleman such as yourself would never lie or be evasive about that kind of thing." Robin says lightly, her airy tone in contradiction to the sly smile on her face. Robin has him pinned and she knows it. Not that a lovely flower such as herself would try to manipulate him or anything.

"Yes, I mean Zoro." Sanji admits quietly, looking down at his hands.

"I had thought so. Well, to answer your question I'm afraid that the answer is no. All history that I have ever read on the subject, through every culture and people that I've known, all says that the first contact with your soulmate leaves no doubt at all in your mind. Apparently the feeling of their absence that we feel throughout our lives prior to that meeting is considerably noticeable when it's filled, and the bright light that often occurs is another sign. If Zoro was your soulmate then the pair of you would know it." she answers him.

"Oh." is all he can say.

He stares down at his hands. He had known that was the answer really. If there was any chance that you could be someone's soulmate and not know it then he was sure that tragedies in books or surprises in romance novels would use that all of the time. He and Zoro aren't soulmates, there's no two ways about it. Even if both of them wishes that it wasn't so.

"However it remains to be said that being someone's soulmate doesn't always ensure that a relationship will be good. Soulmates are connected by whatever mysterious force that operates these things, and though it seems to be engineered that we will each meet our soulmate in our lifetime it can't confirm that the relationship will be a good one." Robin says, blowing across the top of her coffee to cool it down.

"What?" Sanji asks with a frown as he looks up at her. How can a relationship with your soulmate be anything other than perfect? That the definition of it, isn't it?

"Sanji, I don't often think of the rest of the crew as being young but at times like this it's clear that you are. I have seen many soulmate relationships that are fraught and working poorly. Your soulmate fits you of course, but love takes work, dedication and trust. Without those even a soulmate relationship won't work. Sadly that often leaves people in poorly functioning soulmate relationships stuck in them, it's so unthinkable in our culture for soulmates to be imperfect." She sighs and sips at her coffee.

Sanji's heart sinks. What if his soulmate doesn't trust him because of his past with Zoro? What if it ruins his relationship with them? He's pretty sure that Zoro wouldn't be happy about that, his reaction at the idea that Sanji had missed his connection with the lady cook who could have been his soulmate was clear enough.

"Love in a soulmate relationship isn't guaranteed. But by the same token you can love someone without being their soulmate, plenty of people with platonic soulmates fall romantically in love with other people." Robin says with a smile and stands up.

"I think that I'll leave you on your own, I'm sure that you don't need me cluttering up your kitchen. Thank you for the coffee Sanji." Robin says, collecting her cup and plate of shortbread and leaving the room with a sway of her hips and a rustle of her skirt.

Zoro nearly runs into her on her way out and just sidesteps out of her way in time, inadvertently holding the door open for her like the gentleman that he's not. When Robin has left Zoro comes into the room properly and looks at Sanji with some puzzlement.

"What's that face for?" the swordsman asks him as he walks over.

"I use it to cover my skull." Sanji answers dryly.

Zoro smacks him on the head as he walks past and Sanji realises right away that Zoro doesn't have his gloves on, as Zoro moves past him to sit in Robin's seat he spots that they're hooked in underneath his belt but he's not wearing them at all. Seeing Zoro's bare hands on display so casually is attention capturing enough but noticing that Zoro's fingernails are now green and glittery is something that Sanji has a hard time tearing his eyes away from.

"What...?" He starts, unable to find the right words for this oddness.

"Usopp decided that if I was going to be touching people on the crew then I needed to get used to it slowly. Then Nami showed up with nail polish and threatened to raise my debt if I didn't let her and Usopp do it." Zoro grumbles, turning his hand to look at them with distain. When he moves them they catch brightly in the light, their glitter is almost hypnotic. He should probably be laughing and Zoro and he's sure that when his brain stops going in confused circles of disbelief he will but for now he's just in stunned observation.

"Can I claim sanctuary in here? You'll at least keep Usopp away, right?" Zoro grumbles, slouching against the wall in his seat.

"Sure, whatever you want, pretty princess marimo." Sanji grins. Yeah, he's started to grasp Zoro's misfortune and he can't yet calculate quite how long he's going to hold this over Zoro's head but needless to say it'll be a while. He stands up and rubs his hand in Zoro's hair, it'd mess it up if Zoro had anything resembling a style in his hair.

"I hate you." Zoro says bitterly but Sanji knows that's not entirely true.

"That sounds like someone who doesn't want to be kept in the safety of my kitchen. Should I throw you out without your boots so Usopp can get your toenails too?" He grins deviously and tugs on Zoro's ear. Zoro glares petulantly at him but stays silent as to avoid Sanji's spiteful wrath because he absolutely would throw him out like that, although this time he'd go out as well so that he could get a front row seat to Zoro's pedicure nightmare.

"I thought not." He laughs meanly and lets go of Zoro's ear. He walks back to the sink to start on the dishes, he would demand Zoro's help but it would be such a shame to smudge a beautiful paint job like that.

It's nice being able to touch Zoro now, and maybe Robin's right. Maybe both of them need to let go of this useless wish that they were each other's soulmates, there's nothing that they can do about it now. Perhaps it's a better use of their time to just stick with what they had before, only now they can actually touch each other. That's more than just enough, it sounds pretty great actually.


	12. Chapter 12

For the first time in his life Sanji gets to see a soulmate matching. He doesn't know how it's the first time that they touch skin to skin, maybe Robin's dress and boots had been in the way before, goodness knows that Franky wasn't wearing enough clothes to prevent it. Either way when Franky takes Robin's hands to unlock her cuffs on the wall of Enis Lobby they both jerk back and this bright light flares between them with a small bang that displaces the air around them. Apparently it's more dramatic the longer that they've been around the person. He supposes that they have spent some time around each other, emotionally charged time, and so it would be pretty dramatic.

"Oh." Robin breathes.

"Oh." Franky echoes back, staring at her.

Sanji's heart aches and he wonders what that's like, and wants it deep down and feels the throb of his soul, the ragged edges where the other part of him is missing.

Zoro doesn't look at Sanji for the rest of the day and he looks even less pleased when Sanji starts questioning their new nakama when he finally joins the crew.

"What does it feel like?" Sanji asks Franky, sitting on the deck and looking at him with wide eyes.

"What does what feel like?" Franky asks, looking up from checking over a joint in the Sunny's woodwork.

"Touching your soulmate of course! Finding out that it's them for the first time! How does that feel?" Sanji asks excitedly and ignores the dark stare from Zoro that he can feel on his back.

"I guess it feels the same for me as it did for you. I don't really know if it's different for everyone." Franky says with a frown as he scratches his head in puzzlement.

"Why would I know how- oh!" Sanji exclaims, looking over his shoulder to where Zoro was sat, only to jump when he finds the other man near his shoulder.

"We're not soulmates." Zoro says in a flat and vaguely threatening tone of voice. As if to prove his point he smacks Sanji on the side of his neck with his bare hand.

"HEY!" Sanji squawks indignantly and kicks Zoro. It doesn't matter though, Zoro is already walking off without him. Sanji reaches out to him, wanting to apologize, it must look like he's forgetting him already for the mere idea of a soulmate.

"Sorry, bro. I… I just assumed because of how the two of you are." Franky apologizes, shuffling awkwardly as if he doesn't know where to put all of his limbs.

"No, it's fine. It's an easy mistake to make." Sanji answers with a shake of his head.

"We made that mistake too." He adds softly and looks at the door that Zoro left through to the aquarium room.

"Oh." Franky says in a tiny voice. Sanji doesn't look back at him, he doesn't want to see that pity that he can already hear.

"Just tell me how it feels." He says again.

"Well... so far every time we touch I get that jolt and then this feeling. It's like... coming home out of the rain. Or being safe inside when the aqua laguna hits." Franky says and when Sanji looks back Franky is smiling fondly, his eyes wistful and unfocused.

"But like I said, it happens every time we touch at the moment, I think that wears off over time. So sometimes it feels like someone trying to _rip my balls off_." Franky says loudly and Sanji hears a soft giggle from the deck above and he looks up to see Robin looking down at them with a small smile on her face.

"What about that ripped up part in your soul though, how does it feel to have that filled?" he asks hopefully, his mind reaching out to the jagged edges of himself where someone else should be and recoiling at the ache there.

"It doesn't hurt any more. I didn't realize how much it did until it stopped." Franky smiles and Sanji thinks that he sees tears building in the other man's eyes.

Sanji decides to make a break for it and head down into the aquarium room after Zoro.

He opens the door and comes into the darker, cooler room. He pauses and leans back on it and flicks the lock on the door. With that done he glides down the stairs and spies Zoro sitting alone at the bench by the tank, looking in at the fish with a sour expression on his face. Sanji suspects that Zoro isn't so much as mad at him but more that he's angry in general at being reminded that they aren't soulmates and Zoro doesn't feel that electric jolt and feeling of completeness when they touch.

"Hey." Sanji calls out to him and walks over slowly and casually.

"What." Zoro says and it should be a question but with Zoro's flat tone it doesn't sound like it.

"You're so pleasant." Sanji sighs and unbuttons his jacket. That at least gets Zoro looking at him out of the corner of his eye. Sanji shrugs out of the jacket and places it neatly on the bench.

"I know I am. What are you doing?" the swordsman asks with an air of suspicion. Sanji slides his tie off of his neck and wraps each hand in either end. He hooks it over the back of Zoro's neck and pulls the other man close.

"Whatever I want." He purrs.

"Like always then." Zoro snorts.

Zoro doesn't object at all when Sanji pulls him close enough to kiss him and does just that.

"You know, this room is new to us." Sanji says with a devious smile on his face, discarding the tie and reaching down to tug at the hem of Zoro's skintight shirt. Zoro raises his arms obligingly and now Sanji has his hands on all of that previously forbidden skin.

"Oh, you're thinking that we should leave our mark on it?" Zoro laughs, flicking Sanji's belt open.

"No, you'll clean up afterwards you peasant." Sanji barks at him but he still keeps unbuttoning his own shirt. Zoro doesn't object and before too long neither of them are thinking about the fact that they're not soulmates at all, they're just lost in each other. Even if they don't fit together in their souls they fit together enough physically that they're both more than happy.


	13. Chapter 13

Zoro is increcibly relieved to find out that the stupidly tall skeleton is not his soulmate, almost relieved enough to not be angry at the fact that the man grabbed his face for no good reason. Almost, but not quite. Still, he probably shouldn't murder the man or see if it's possible to kill a dead man. Luffy has decided that the shadow-less skeleton Brook is going to be their nakama and he's got that stupid expression on his face that Zoro has come to recognize means that no argument will dissuade him. He supposes that aside from his grabby hands there's nothing particularly bad about the skeleton, that he's a swordsman is even better. He wouldn't mind talking to someone about swords, even if their blades are entirely different.

The crew probably should have taken one look at Thriller Bark, said thanks but no thanks and sailed on. That's not the kind of shit that they do though and when he, Sanji and Luffy all lose their shadows they have no other choice.

This is why he's currently curled on the floor with a ghost having flown out of his back, hating his life and his entire worthless being. He stumbles to his feet and looks at the girl floating in the air. She's the dumbest fucking thing that he's ever seen, she looks like a creepy doll, all sinister pastels with a soundtrack of grating laughter.

"F-fight me." He grits out, his body and voice still shaking.

"Fight you?" The girl cackles, folding over in midair and clutching at her stomach like the idea is really that funny.

"Oh, kill me now." Sanji breathes shakily as Usopp hauls him to his feet. Zoro grits his teeth in anger.

"Fight me." He says more firmly, brandishing his swords.

"How are you going to do that? You can't even touch me!" She laughs and swoops through the air. Zoro realises what she's going to do too late, he holds his swords out but she sails through them and he realises that he's going to get another dose of bitter crawling self loathing as she flies through his body herself this time instead of with her ghosts.

Only... only he doesn't.

Instead of pain slamming into him, pain slams out of him. It's like being cut open in reverse, a wound becoming unwounded and the blood running backwards into it like there was never anything wrong. He feels sunshine on his skin and electricity in his veins. He is alive and whole and he has never been before.

He stumbles forward, his hand on his chest.

It feels like the warm blanket around his shoulders that his sensei put on him that time when he got caught in the freezing rain for five hours. It feels like the perfection of Sanji's food after a long and painful workout. It feels like home.

He opens his eyes and sees the flash of light dissipating, that all had to have happened in a split second but even now he can feel that sensation of rightness in his veins. He turns slowly around and looks at her. She at least looks just as horrified and stunned as him.

"You?" He asks numbly.

"No..." She breathes looking at him.

"YOU?!" Zoro snarls. This is just great. He's spent the vast majority of his life covering every reasonable part of himself to stop someone from touching him and becoming his soulmate and fate gives him a girl that can fly right through his whole body. This feels like fate spiting him for trying to avoid it.

"Did what I think just happened just happen?" Usopp asks, looking from Zoro to the dumb pink haired witch who is staring at him like he's got two heads.

"No, absolutely not." He asserts. Maybe if he just ignores it then this whole thing will go away.

"You can't be my soulmate! You're so... so un-cute!" the girl wails miserably.

"THAT'S your objection?!" Zoro roars at her angrily. Oh yes, fate has it out for him alright.

"Oh like YOU have a better one?! You're lucky to have someone like me as your soulmate, even if you're beyond hope. I didn't do anything to deserve this!" She snaps at him.

"She's your soulmate."

That's Sanji's voice.

Zoro's head whips around so fast that he thinks that he hears something in his neck crack. Sanji is looking at him with wide eyes, his arm still around Usopp's shoulder from where the sharpshooter had pulled him to his feet after the crushing despair of that ghost attack. Frankly Sanji looks worse now than he did right after her attack. He looks like he's filled with more horror, more dread and more hopelessness than she managed to do to him. Sanji looks like Zoro just shoved a sword into his chest and turned the blade.

"Sanji..." He breathes in horror.

He knew that this would happen, that they'd run into their soulmates. Everyone does, some people get it way too late but they still meet. He knew that this would happen but he had always pictured it being Sanji who touched that special person first. In his heart he'd always feared that when it happened to Sanji he'd have to watch their relationship be ripped apart, but the blond is wearing the same expression that Zoro had expected to find on his own face when one of them met their soulmate. Only it was supposed to be Sanji meeting his and Zoro getting his heart broken, goodness knows he'd protected himself enough that it should have been that way, but it's not.

"Is it romantic?" Usopp asks smartly, catching the look between him and the cook. That snaps Zoro out of it.

"NO!" He yells at the same time as she does.

"Platonic then." Sanji says shakily, looking between Zoro and... and... HER.

"No. Not romantic, not platonic, a mistake." she says instead of him, glaring at Zoro furiously.

"That I agree with you on." Zoro nods.

The pair of them glare at each other and Zoro is still in the stage where he can't believe his bad luck. Of all of the times and places to run into his soulmate and of all of the people for it to be it had to be this pastel goth weirdo who happens to be their enemy too.

"I'd rather cut my own head off than stick my tongue down your throat for sure." She adds, giving Zoro a disgusted look.

"I can _help_ you with that if you want." He offers, waving a sword in her direction.

"Maybe you two actually have something in common if you, you know, talk to each other. Aren't these relationships fated to be perfect for you?" Usopp asks and Zoro can't help but notice that Usopp's arm is still around Sanji's back, holding him upright and keeping him close.

"No, look. Oi... uh... whatever your name is." Zoro hesitates with a frown. He's sure that she did say her name but he'd processed that information, deemed her too irritating and worthless to remember her name and dumped the information back out the other ear.

"It's PERONA! I know your name, you're Roronoa Zoro and the least cute and most awful person I've ever met!" She shrieks in offense. Zoro rubs his ear. Why does his soulmate have to shriek? He must have done something terrible in a previous life to warrant this.

"Right, Perona. Whatever. I'm traveling the grand line so that I can find and defeat Mihawk, I'm doing it with these guys and the rest of my crew. Does that interest you?" He asks, knowing full well from the disgust on her face that her answer will be no. He hears the hitch in Sanji's breath and ignores it for now, the point that he's making will make Sanji feel better, he knows it.

"That sounds like the worst thing ever. No way am I coming with you!" Perona says snootily, narrowing her mascara lined eyes at him.

"Great, you're only going to get in my way and you don't want to be there. I don't want to stay here and do... whatever it is that you want to do either. So we go our separate ways and never see each other again." Zoro offers.

"That suits me." She nods.

"Good. See?" Zoro says, turning around to look at Sanji who still looks a little too pale for Zoro's liking. Sanji nods a little weakly and Usopp laughs shakily and slaps Sanji on the back. That's the first thing to break Sanji's concentration as he looks at their sniper with irritation for the supposedly comforting slap.

"Great. Usopp, you fight her, Sanji, let's go find the others." Zoro says, spurring the others into action, even if on Usopp's part that action is pleading to not be left alone with THIS woman. Sanji straightens his suit for a second and then starts to run off down the hallway.

"Wait!" Perona calls, halting Zoro in his tracks and making Sanji, who is several paces ahead of him, stop and turn around.

Perona chews her lipstick covered bottom lip, getting some of it on her teeth in the process, not that Zoro will tell her that. She reaches her hand out and touches the side of Zoro's face carefully. That same electric shock sensation of rightness, home and finally being complete throbs through Zoro's entire body and soul.

"Does that go if you die? If you're the other part of my soul then does that pain come back if you die?" Perona asks, her voice quiet and her hand still on Zoro's cheek. With the contact lasting longer than a second Zoro feels... sedated is the best word. Like coming down from Chopper's high strength pain killers or being pleasantly drunk in good company.

"It makes sense. You're the other part of my soul so... so if either of our souls moves on then it would make sense." He answers hazily. Did she just press her hand more firmly against his face or did he lean into it a little there?

"And you're going to fight Mihawk?" Perona questions him. Zoro breaks away from her touch, this is exactly what he didn't want, just what he's always said about soulmates!

"Yes, don't you dare tell me that I-" He starts to argue back but she sighs and smushes her palm into the middle of his face, hard enough to make his nose hurt.

"Then WIN." She hisses at him and shoves him away by the face.

Zoro stares at her. This stupid girl is beyond infuriating and nothing like him, she doesn't want anything to do with his dream but... but she's telling him to win. She's not saying that he isn't allowed to do it, though he wouldn't listen to her if she did, she's not saying that he's not able to, which she'd be wrong about. She's telling him that he has to win.

Oh.

"I will." He answers quietly and nods.

Perona leans over and gives his cheeks one last hard pinch and then makes a shooing motion at him.

"Thanks for fixing that soul ache thing, now get your ugly, un-cute face away from me. I don't want to see you again. And don't die." She says primly.

"Bite me!" He snarls at her and runs off in the direction that he and Sanji were going in. There's a pause before the cook follows him and as they run off Sanji doesn't say anything.

After the whole fight, after Zoro nearly died for Luffy, Nami comes to talk to him.

"Sanji said that you found your soulmate. That girl with the pink hair." She says softly.

"It's platonic and neither of us want anything to do with each other." He croaks, his voice still hoarse from the blood thats been in there.

Nami purses her lips and looks at him with a trace of displeasure, probably the idea of someone treating their platonic soulmate like that offends her. She would never do that to Luffy. She followed Luffy for lots of good reasons but one of those reasons was because of the trust that she placed in him at the beginning. She had trusted him, even though it wasn't right away, because they were soulmates and Luffy more than earned that trust on his own merits afterwards at Arlong Park. After that there was no question as to where she would go. She had her dream and he had his and they were going to do it side by side. For him and his soulmate to exchange nothing more than a 'thanks for the soul repair, bye' probably rubs her entirely the wrong way.

"I saw Kuma. He got her." Nami says, not looking at him.

Zoro's eyes widen and his mind scrambles in a panic for the edge of his soul that used to be ripped up and is now flawlessly smooth. Whatever part of her that he was missing is still there. Were they wrong, do they stay complete even if the other has died?

"He didn't kill her." Nami says a little more gently, and Zoro wonders what expression he had just been wearing to make her expression go soft on him like that.

"He sent her away somewhere. He asked her where she wanted to go and then she was gone. I don't know where she is." Nami explains.

Zoro rests his head back against the stone slab that Chopper had used as a medical bed. She's not dead.

"Good. She'll be out of my way then." He answers and despite his words he feels a small sting in himself. It's irrational, he didn't want her with him, she didn't want to travel with him, but that sting doesn't feel mental. It's not rational, it's emotional, basic and hardwired into him.

"Good." He repeats and closes his eyes. He doesn't care. He doesn't.


	14. Chapter 14

No matter how much Sanji tries to put it out of his mind he still can't get the image of Zoro and Perona out of his head, he can't stop seeing the wide eyed stunned look on Zoro's face. He can't stop seeing the expression that he wore. Despite all of their arguments and their friction Sanji does know Zoro and he knows him well, that expression was bliss, plain and simple. He remembers Franky's words about how he didn't realize just how much being without your soulmate hurt until you got them.

The stupid almost laughable thing is that the thing that flew through Zoro wasn't even Perona's real body, her actual body was further inside the castle. What flew through Zoro was her ghost or something. Apparently it counted though, it was enough of her soul to connect to Zoro's when she flew though him. They didn't even physically touch. Fate isn't without a sense of humor.

Sanji idly peels vegetables as he thinks. Zeff would have his ass for being distracted this much when he's cooking, but damn it he can't help it.

He does believe Zoro when he says it's platonic, Zoro wouldn't lie to him about that. Zoro couldn't even have said that it was romantic and got Sanji to believe him, the plain repulsion that wrote itself across both Zoro and Perona's faces was more than evidence that nothing was going to happen there. He doesn't think that Zoro is going to demand that they go on a big hunt for wherever Perona got sent to, not in the slightest, so it's not even that she's a danger to their dreams. It's that... he's envious of Perona.

That's the dumbest thing of all. He had known that he wasn't Zoro's soulmate, he's known it for ages now. He'd thought that he was fine with that by now. He was sad at the time of course, he's a romantic and the idea of him and Zoro being soulmates was exactly that, romantic. But he was over that. He had thought that he was over that. He is not over that.

He wants to be the reason that Zoro's face lights up like that, he wants to be the other half of Zoro. But he's not, and he never will be.

"Hey." Zoro says and makes Sanji jump, a potato skittering out of his hand and into the sink.

Sanji whips around to see a surprised Zoro standing just to the left of him, the fridge door halfway open and his hand frozen midway through reaching for a drink.

"What the hell, cook?" Zoro asks in confusion.

"Nothing. It's nothing." Sanji mutters red faced, staring down into the sink and retrieving then washing his potato.

"Did I sneak up on you? I wasn't trying to. Since when can I sneak up on you by accident?" Zoro asks suspiciously, closing the fridge without even getting a drink. Evidently this is more important to him.

"Well, I can't be perfect all of the time." Sanji says, looking down his nose at Zoro.

"Or any of the time." Zoro shoots back.

"Better than you, you're a moron all of the time." Sanji retorts, getting the wheels of the argument going, that way he can deflect attention away from-

"Don't distract me, what are you thinking about? What's got you so absorbed that you didn't hear me?" Zoro asks suspiciously.

Damn.

Sanji makes some indistinct noises and shrugs. He doesn't want to lie to Zoro as such but the whole thing seems so stupid when he says it out loud that he doesn't want to. The last thing that Sanji wants to be is Zoro's platonic soulmate, but still he's envious! It's irrational.

"Perona." Zoro concludes and Sanji puts down his knife and his potato. If he keeps this up he's either going to fuck up the food, which isn't acceptable, or cut himself by accident, which would be a crime.

"It's... don't worry about it." Sanji says, shaking his head.

Zoro's hand tugs on the back of Sanji's shirt and Sanji doesn't resist it when Zoro turns him around so that his back is against the counter. He takes a while to reach Zoro's eyes. In all honesty he's a little ashamed of how he's acting right now. When he finally does though Zoro leans in and kisses him. It's slow and sweet and Sanji melts at it.

"Idiot." Zoro sighs, close enough to Sanji that when he speaks his lips brush Sanji's ever so slightly.

"I know you are." Sanji grins and kisses Zoro back before the swordsman can get an equally childish retort out.


	15. Chapter 15

As the sea king drops dead into the ocean it occurs to Sanji that he is already very different from when he left the Baratie and entered the Grand Line. Now killing a sea king is hardly worth mentioning in his day, a regular and now semi-boring occurrence. He squints into the sky as something flies out of the mouth of the sea king. It is silhouetted against the sun but it's coming at him fast. Something about it doesn't trip his reflexes into lashing out at it so instead the thing hits him dead on and knocks him to the ground.

Only it's not a thing, it's a woman.

She reaches up to push herself off of Sanji and his hands come to her hips out of reflex.

It's like food when you're hungry, it's like the first sweet cigarette after half a week of being out, it's like summer sunshine on his skin. He sits up and stares at her in awe. Everything is wonderful and suddenly nothing hurts. As he looks at her he knows that she's perfect, everything from the shape of her eyes to the flick of her hair, not to mention the beautiful tail. She's a mermaid and of course she is, he's always been obsessed with them. Some part of him must have _known_.

The light between them is dissipating but every second that his bare hands are on her feels like heaven, an electrically charged bliss that he's not sure how he ever lived without.

Suddenly they're kissing, it could have been her who started it or it could have been him. He neither knows nor cares. They move in perfect harmony, his mouth against hers and he was _made_ for her. His heart burns for her and he loves her instantly. He's never loved like-

ZORO!

He jerks back and his eyes go wide. His gaze whips around to his crew who all look stunned, Nami looks pained though and looks away from him. He realizes all at once that Zoro isn't there and before this he had been.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I have to go." He apologizes, sliding her off of his lap and onto the floor as he scoots away from her. He scrambles to his feet and rushes to the rest of the crew.

"Which way?" He asks breathlessly.

"I'm not going to te-"

"Medical room."

Usopp and Nami speak at once. The pair look at each other and Nami looks scoldingly at Usopp for speaking.

Sanji doesn't have time to get involved with that as he sprints to Chopper's medical room as fast as his feet can carry him. When he bursts in there he doesn't see Zoro at first, but then he realizes that bookshelves don't have legs and Zoro is on the floor leant against the wall on the other side of it. He dashes over there and looks down at Zoro.

Zoro isn't crying but he looks like he might.

"I'm so sorry." Sanji says, falling to his knees before Zoro. How can Zoro ever forgive him for this? He just KISSED someone else right before his eyes, his soulmate no less.

"I knew it would happen. It's not your…" Zoro says with a shake of his head.

"No, Zoro it's no excuse, I shouldn't have-" He insists desperately.

"It feels good, right? Having your soulmate there feels right, even when you don't know anything about them you know that they fit. I didn't want mine, but I could have made it work, it would have been great. Even now I can feel where she is in me." Zoro says quietly and puts his hand on his chest over his heart.

"You just… felt the same is all. I knew that you would." Zoro adds, looking up at him. There's pain there but also resignation, like it's all hopeless.

"But I kissed her, I should never have done that." He protests. Why isn't Zoro angry at him? Zoro should be screaming at him and swinging a punch for his face.

"You were made for her, it's not your fault. It was… amazing… when it lasted." Zoro replies with a shake of his head.

"No, Zoro, it's not over. I don't want it to be. I want YOU." Sanji pleads.

"You want her." Zoro responds simply.

"I want YOU." Sanji repeats angrily.

Zoro swallows thickly and looks a little closer to the hurt that Sanji can only imagine at. Zoro leans forward and kisses Sanji, it's bittersweet and Sanji aches for it.

"It's okay. Go and see her." He says and leans back against the wall.

"I don't want…" Sanji says sadly but Zoro just shakes his head.

"Go." The swordsman tells him and Sanji knows that he wants him out of his space. Sanji doesn't blame him.

He's out in the hallway and feels like his heart is being ripped in two different directions. His mind and his memory want Zoro, he loves him. But his being as a whole wants that woman up on the deck, she fits him like a puzzle piece and he can't deny that. He has his soulmate and his lover and he can't have both.


	16. Chapter 16

Zoro is training his control, he'll need it a lot right now. His exercise is to hang a weight on a single strand of silk from the ceiling, he has to swing his sword hard but stop it as close to the silk thread as possible without cutting it. Perfect perception and control.

Sanji comes into the room. Zoro takes a deep calming breath and continues.

"Zoro." Sanji says as if Zoro could have possibly not noticed. Zoro knows that Sanji was just down on the deck talking to his soulmate. His romantic soulmate. Zoro's heart aches.

"Yeah?" He asks and swings his sword again. It's Wado that he's using, she's the sharpest.

"I'm sorry." Sanji tells him. Zoro doesn't turn around to look at him.

"You said that. And I said that you don't have anything to be sorry for." he tells Sanji.

"I still am though." Sanji says.

Zoro considers telling Sanji that Sanji's guilt isn't anything to do with him. Anyway, so what if he felt his heart break at seeing Sanji kissing Camie as if he needed her like air? He knew it would happen, he always knew. He swings again, the thread wobbles from the close call.

"It's not your fault." He tells Sanji instead. He shifts his stance, left dominant to right dominant and starts again.

"You keep saying that but how can that possibly be true?!" Sanji demands and moves into Zoro's line of sight, working his way around the thread and standing opposite so that he's right where Zoro is looking. Zoro focuses on the silk and Sanji blurs out in the background.

Sanji isn't going to drop this conversation.

"Because it's my fault." He explains and swings again, more controlled this time.

"How? That- what?!" Sanji squawks. Zoro still hates it when Sanji does that voice.

"Because I knew this would happen and I did it anyway, I'm an idiot. That's not your fault. It's mine." he says with a sigh. He adjusts his grip to give himself time to settle his feelings and refocus. He slashes again.

"That doesn't make sense." the blond tells him. Zoro wants to punch him. He swings again.

"Fine. I'm an idiot because I knew that your soulmate would be romantic, you're so obsessed with romance that it couldn't have been anything else. I made the stupid choice to not touch you right away and let myself get involved with you." He explains.

"So if you had touched me right away you wouldn't have-" Sanji starts to say, but Zoro can't stop now. His mouth is running away with him.

"But fine, I was an idiot enough to put off touching you and got into a relationship with you. I was an idiot for letting it be more than just a sex thing and getting romantically involved. If I wasn't an idiot I would have realised that I wanted to be your soulmate and touched you before that stupid thought could take root and then I could have found out early enough and not deluded myself with the idea that it might be me." He says and keeps swinging, the weight wobbles dangerously and Zoro has to pause for a few seconds before the strand stops wavering.

"But I didn't do any of that because I'm an idiot." He tells the string, not looking right at Sanji and letting his focus obscure him in the background. That way he doesn't have to look at the cook as he spills his guts out to him.

"So fine I... when I touched you and found out for sure that it wasn't me, that it would never be me..." Zoro trails off and closes his eyes. He's a determined man and he has a hard time shaking the notion that if he only tried harder, if he only loved Sanji more then maybe whatever power decided soulmates would change its mind and make it him instead. It doesn't work like that.

"Zoro..." Sanji's voice floats softly over to him, taking advantage of Zoro's hesitation. He has to continue.

"If I wasn't an idiot I would have just stopped it then. I would have called it off because it's obvious that this would happen." He says with a shake of his head.

"It's not obvious, I should have had the self control not to be like that with Camie. I want you not her." Sanji insists.

"Don't lie to me." He says sharply, actually focusing on Sanji. The blond flinches visibly.

"You do want her, it's just how this shit works. I wanted Perona, I felt like I needed her even though I had always decided that I didn't want her. The soulmate bond just works like that. Whether you've decided that you want her or not you still do." Zoro explains. He doesn't need to say all of this to Sanji, Sanji knows it to be true. The stupid love-cook is just trying to say the right thing.

He doesn't want Perona, but right now maybe he really does need her. If he had her with him then she would try to make him feel better, she would talk him through this shit just like Nami and Luffy do for each other. He shouldn't need her and doesn't want to need her but the part of him permanently attached to her is humming with the reminder that she should. He wonders if Perona is feeling this from however many miles away that she is.

"I didn't cut it off though because I'm an idiot. I did the stupidest thing and fell in love with you." He says and it's the first time he's said it. He swings Wado again but his hand is so unsteady that the silk is sliced and the weight drops to the floor. He loves Sanji, he loves him so badly.

"You didn't break my heart, I did. You don't need to apologise for me being an idiot." Zoro says miserably, his heart aches and he knows that everything he has said is true, he did this to himself.

Sanji steps closer and ducks down until Zoro has to look at him.

"I love you too, you stupid idiot. I have for a while." Sanji admits. Zoro shoves him away and turns his back on Sanji.

"Just don't. You want to apologise for hurting me then apologise for that shit. I don't want to hear this. You have your soulmate down there. You should be with her, she wants you and you want her. It's a perfect match and it'll make you happy. Don't tell me shit that'll..." He trails off.

Words like that convince Zoro's foolish heart that maybe Sanji will come back to him, maybe it will be okay. He can't let it, he won't. His idiocy should have stopped a long time ago but at the very least he can put a stop to it now.

"If you love me then why are you pushing me away? Shouldn't you want to be with me?" Sanji challenges him and Zoro turns on his heel and glares at Sanji fiercely.

"I'm pushing you away BECAUSE I love you!" He roars at him.

"I don't care if it's ripping my heart apart, I do love you. I want the best thing for you. I want you to be happy and even... even if that's with her and not me. I want you to be happy." Zoro stares down at the floor again and sheathes his sword.

"Funny." Sanji says dryly. "She said the same thing."

Zoro's gaze snaps up and he stares at Sanji. The cook is looking at him irritably, his arms crossed and a scowl on his face.

"I told her about us. I told her that I didn't want to hurt her but I didn't know what to do. She doesn't want to be on our ship and I don't want to give up my dream either. The same shit that you told me soulmates were trouble for." Sanji continues and Zoro just looks at him. This can't be going where he thinks it is can it?

"She said that she wanted me to be happy, even if it wasn't with her. Apparently that's what you do with someone you're truly in love with." The blond says sharply.

Zoro's mouth moves around words that he can't reach and doesn't say. How can this be happening?

"I told you, I want you, not her. We agreed that we'd take her to where she wants to go and that we would go our separate ways. She's going to fishman island afterwards and she said that when you and I are over I can find her again." Sanji continues.

"I told her that I'd think about it. _If_ you and I ever lose this or we stop being together and I've already found All Blue, then I'll go find her. But not until then." Sanji tells him with a shake of his head. Zoro can't help but notice the stress on the word 'if'. If they break up, if they fall out of love with each other. That stress implies that Sanji thinks it's unlikely. Sanji thinks that this could be a forever thing.

Sanji is choosing him. Sanji is choosing his dream and him over his soulmate. He's doing the very thing that Zoro always mocked people for being unable to do. Sanji is rejecting his soulmate, just as Zoro did with his own.

"You want this, you want me?" He asks Sanji in a quiet and stunned voice.

"You really are an idiot, do I need to keep repeating myself? Should I write it on your face or- MPH!" Sanji is cut off when Zoro shoves him against the wall and kisses him as hard as he can. He hasn't lost Sanji! Sanji is really choosing him! His idiotic heart thumps and glows with its stupid love.


	17. Chapter 17

Zoro presses his hands to his face and grits his teeth. He didn't even get a week with Sanji. Sanji chose him over his soulmate and everything was perfect. Okay, it was a little awkward being with him when his romantic soulmate was around but that was fine too. Camie is a nice person, a good person, she would be though as she's part of Sanji. They took her to Sabody and then... then everything went wrong.

She got taken, they was no question as to whether they would rescue her. Even if they hadn't all seen the look of agony on Sanji's face at his soulmate's peril they would have saved her.

Then they had fought the pacifista and then, finally, Kuma himself.

Zoro sprawls in the pawprint on the dried muddy ground and wants to scream in frustration. He's separated from his crew and from his lover right when he'd got their shit together. He snarls and sits up, he's furious at himself for getting the snot beat out of him like that. He can deal with it though, learn and improve, one flaw at a time. Being angry won't solve anything.

Firstly, he needs to find out where he is and then how to get back to Sabody. His nakama won't go on without him, he knows that. He doesn't want them to keep them waiting though.

"You look worse than I remember." A flat yet saccharine voice says and Zoro's head turns so fast he nearly snaps it off of his neck.

Perona stands above him, her long pink hair hanging down in curls and a parasol over her head shielding her from the total lack of visible sunshine in this gloomy place.

"Perona." He says in surprise and her name almost has a taste to it in his mouth, the word just for his soulmate.

"Zoro." She responds. He gets to his feet and looks at her. The last time he saw her was at Thriller Bark when they first met and where she disappeared... disappeared when Kuma was around.

"He sent you here..." He says as the idea occurs to him.

"It'd kind of sweet that he thought the place you would want to be is with me." She says lightly and her painted lips quirk into a smile.

"It's kind of stupid." He shoots back and her smile turns to a smirk.

"Like I'd want to see your un-cute face." She laughs and reaches out to poke him in the forehead.

Their skin touches and relief washes over Zoro. It feels like both an itch finally scratched and a painkiller for all of his injuries. The relief is so strong he almost groans with it.

"You're hurt." She says softly and when he forces his sleepy eyes open again to look at her (when had he closed them?) she looks softer in her expression too. The feeling goes both ways.

"I've had worse." He answers easily. She doesn't let go, her hand slides from his face and down to cup around the back of his neck. With her free hand she snaps her umbrella shut and jams it point end into the ground then moves to feel his chest.

"Ribs?" She asks, pressing and making him wince, even through the numbing effect of her touch.

"Cracked, not broken I think. I'm pretty sure I bruised something internal, but I'm fine." Why is he telling her this? He barely knows her and she probably doesn't care. His soul knows her though and if she doesn't care about his plight she's doing a bad job of showing it, her brow is pinched with concern.

"Come inside, you're going to _die_ when you realise where you are. Just no fighting right away or I'll make you regret it." She threatens, dropping her hands from him and returning the sanity to Zoro's brain. He's about to ask her just what she thinks that she can do to make him do or not do anything and then she makes a ghost appear threateningly near him. He remembers _those_.

"Fine." He agrees grudgingly and follows her, it's not like there's anyone he wants to fight right now, is there?


	18. Chapter 18

"You've been poking at it, haven't you? That's why it keeps getting infected." Perona scolds him sharply, the antiseptic on her cotton swab smarting as she applies it over the gash on his face.

"It's just a little infection, it's fine. It'll heal." He mutters and just avoids flinching as her movement pulls on a stitch. His hand touches her bare thigh just above her knee. She's so convinced that he's going to run off to avoid her medical attention that she's just dumped herself in his lap. Right now though he's glad of it. Instead of focusing on the pain in his face and where his eye used to be he instead focuses on the warm resonant hum of their souls that he can feel when he touches her. She's wearing pink latex gloves as she deals with his eye so it's their only point of contact.

Her soul feels like hot water on tired muscles, like sunshine on his skin and happy laughter keeping loneliness at bay. That last one is often literally true. It's been six months since he saw his crew and two weeks since he lost his eye. He can't train every minute of every day and though Mihawk is a teacher that he never thought he'd have or deserve he's hardly one for social company. Perona is his only friend here and technically she's not that, she's his soulmate. He doesn't know if she makes him weak or strong any more, but right now he needs her.

He still misses his crew though. Being with Perona is strangely soothing and she's good to argue with but she's not sweet like Chopper, or funny like Usopp or wild like Luffy. He misses them, he misses Sanji too and in a different way to the rest.

"You're thinking about him again aren't you?" Perona says quietly and Zoro looks at her, suspicious again about the possibility that she might be able to read his mind.

"Why do you say that?" He asks instead of admitting it.

"You get this pained look on your face." she answers after a moment, looking incredibly displeased at it.

"Of course I looked pained, you have your fingers IN MY SKULL." He snarls at her, though it's a bit of an exaggeration.

"Here's what I want to know, and you can't not answer me because I'm fixing your face and if you try to not answer me even then I'll send a hollow through you." She threatens and he knows that she means it.

"I want to know why if you love him you look sad and worried when you think of him." She asks.

"I miss him." Zoro answers easily.

"So why the worried look?" She presses and Zoro looks down at his hand on her skin and focuses on the feeling of her soul against his. For whatever reason the feeling that he gets when he touches her hasn't faded, it's as strong as when he first met her, he knows that's odd but at least it startles him less.

"Kuma sent me here, to you or to Mihawk." He says slowly as he moves his thumb on her skin. To some this might look sexual but he's about as interested in sticking his dick in her or any woman as he is in boning an active volcano and she's not interested in anyone. No, he's just... being weak. Keeping the way that thinking about this makes him feel at bay by replacing it with the feel of her soul.

"And?" Perona says with a cluck of her tongue.

"So either he sends me to train with the man I mean to beat, possible but unlikely. Or he sent me to my soulmate." He explains.

"Right?" Perona says, not getting it.

"You're my soulmate, not Sanji. If he sent me to you then he sent him to her again and they're not platonic, they're romantic." Zoro says and he can feel the knot of unease tie around his heart and squeeze.

"But I thought that you two were together." she frowns and drops the last of her antiseptic soaked cotton onto the stone floor at her side.

"We are, he chose to be with me instead of her. I trust him, it's fine." He says and even he can hear the slight hint of uncertainty in his tone.

"You don't sound convinced." She says softly and picks up the bandage at her side and a rectangular cotton pad. She presses it to his eye and he winces, he keeps talking to distract himself.

"We were dating when we met you and then... ah- and then he met her not too long before Sabody and when he met her-" Zoro cuts off and winces, moving her hand slightly so that she's not pushing right into one of his stitches.

"When he met her?" She prompts and continues winding the bandage around his head.

"Two years is just a long time is all and she is his soulmate, he's not got any way of talking to me. I wouldn't _blame_ him." He says instead but it's not entirely true. He wouldn't blame Sanji, he'd be heartbroken and feel betrayed but he'd understand.

"When he met her?" She asks again, her voice stern and demanding.

Zoro looks at her. Perona doesn't judge him when he needs help, she pushes him to be stronger, she supports his dream, even though they don't always get on she does love him in a weird kind of way. He trusts her.

"They couldn't keep their hands off of each other." He says quietly. He wouldn't tell anyone else this. To anyone else it'd come off as angling for pity which is the last thing that he wants.

Perona's face freezes and her eyes go as sharp and hard as diamonds and her hands still for a few moments and Zoro really has no idea what she's thinking. Her hands begin to move again and she ties off the bandage around his head.

"You trust him?" She asks and it's not a judgmental or sarcastic sounding question.

Zoro thinks about it for a moment, but he doesn't really need to.

"Yes." He responds. He does trust Sanji. Sanji made the choice to be with him and Sanji is a man of his word. The worry he feels is an echo of the pain when Sanji first kissed her instead of him, a difficult to silence fear that the same mistake will be repeated. That is a weakness in his own feelings and his own trust though, not a reflection on Sanji. He trusts him and is deserving of that trust.

Perona evidently reads that on his face too because she nods and stands up, Zoro's hand falling from her leg.

"Don't touch that and don't take the bandage off until I tell you, horrible oozing face wounds are incredibly not cute." She says, wagging a finger at him. Zoro is half tempted to do just that and get one just to spite her.

"Whatever will make you shut up. I'm going to have a nap." He tells her and hauls himself off of the floor and onto his bed.

"I think I'm going to go bother Mihawk." She says after a second and goes away looking unusually thoughtful.

Zoro stares one eyed at his bedroom ceiling and resists the temptation to touch his face, he hopes the scar won't bother Sanji too bad. Then again Sanji has always complained about his looks and it's hardly stopped his attraction until now has it? He shuts his eye, it'll be fine.


	19. Chapter 19

Sanji is entirely miserable. Aside from being stuck on the island from hell, he's without Zoro and the rest of their crew. To add insult to injury he's stuck with the most awful bunch of people in the world, led by the worst of them all. Iva.

Or at least that had been his feeling at the start, it's different now. He's impressed with Iva's abilities, with Iva's strength and also his persistence in making Sanji's life hell. He's not sure about the whole gender and dresses thing anymore but as long as Iva doesn't try to cram him into one he can deal with it. Besides, Sanji has seen the looks of joy on the faces of newcomers to the island as Iva uses his powers to change their bodies. Sanji can't resent that.

So yes, Iva is a thorn in Sanji's side but it's one of many and not even the biggest. The worst is something else entirely.

When Sanji is awake he thinks of his training, of food, he thinks of his nakama and his lover Zoro. But at night... at night he dreams of nothing but his soulmate. Sometimes it's sexual, sometimes it's domestic where they share a life together, he dreams of introducing her to Zeff and he even dreams of them with children of their own.

Some countries torture people to death by lashing each of their limbs to huge horses and setting them off, ripping the person apart. That is how Sanji feels when he wakes. His first feeling is of loss, that he was with his soulmate and now he isn't. Then comes the crushing guilt for thinking of her when he should be thinking of Zoro. Next is the assertion to himself that he does love Zoro, that it's him that he wants, he reminds himself of all that he feels for the idiot swordsman. Then lastly he wonders with horror if he'll always feel like this and what Zoro will say. What if Zoro tries to send him back to Camie? Zoro wouldn't want to see him hurting. Most likely he'd be hurt too and Sanji really doesn't need a repeat of how Zoro looked after Sanji had connected with Camie for the first time. Maybe he'd cut Sanji into bits, he'd deserve it.

Sanji is in hell and an entirely self-made one at that.

Sanji sits on a table in Iva's office and drinks coffee so thick and black that it's basically treacle. He's on hour thirty of not sleeping and this stuff helps keep it that way. Avoiding his dreams is the only way that he can deal with them, that might be pathetic but he just doesn't care if it is anymore.

Iva is cleaning off his glove after changing another new person's life for the better.

"What can you actually do with those Iva?" Sanji asks and drains the last of his coffee from the cup.

"All sorts of things, change a person's body, save a person's life. Other things and I'm sure there are things I've not yet discovered too." Iva says simply.

Sanji considers this for a moment or two. Your soulmate was in every fibre of your being, so that surely has to be cellular and biological right?

"What about... what about soulmates? Can you affect that bond?" Sanji asks slowly as the thought starts to congeal together into a plan in his brain.

"Normally, no." Iva says, turning to look at Sanji properly.

"So you can sometimes?" Sanji asks.

"Why do you want to know? What's brewing in that pretty blond head of yours, hmm?" Iva asks suspiciously.

"Can you change who someone's soulmate is? I'm not the soulmate of the man I love and he and his platonic soulmate agreed to part ways and mine knows that I want him but not her." Sanji explains.

"So where's the problem? You have your beau already." Iva points out.

"Yeah, well my stupid soul doesn't seem to know that. Even though I think about him all the time when I sleep all I dream of is her. We both wanted to be each other's match so badly. Can you change it so that it's me and him instead?" Sanji asks hopefully.

Iva purses bright purple lips together in disapproval.

"Not with only you here I can't. And, not to patronise you candy boy but you are only twenty. The love we have at your age often seems more profound than it is, I would feel terrible if I wrecked a bond that could work just because you're in young love." Iva says with a shake of his large head.

"That IS pretty patronising, but fine. The fact that you seem reluctant makes me think that you could do it though, like a potion you could make or something. Something we could both drink together. Or even inject like you do, we've got a doctor who could deal with that for us." Sanji says.

"It's a serum. And I'd have to use a long needle finger to draw blood from your very heart." Iva warns him.

Sanji unbuttons his shirt and pulls it open, looking Iva dead in the eye as he does so.

"Go for it." Sanji tells him and sees the way that Iva leers for a moment at his bare skin.

"No, not if you kicked down my door for a hundred days demanding it." Iva says with a haughty sniff.

"Just a hundred days, huh? I've got another year left here, I can do more than a hundred days!" Sanji boasts and stands up confidently.

"I'd like to see you try, and you have those recipes to gather too." Iva sneers.

"Anything for love!" He retorts and walks off.

The next morning he kicks down Iva's door and demands the serum to change the fate of his and Zoro's souls. Iva denies him and throws him out. One year and three hundred and sixty-five new doors later Sanji is standing on the Sabody Archipelago with a vial of serum in his pocket. He is going to find his idiot swordsman and he is going to set things right!


	20. Chapter 20

Sanji emerges from Iva's boat, studiously ignoring the embarrassing people waving him off. He does at least have the decency to thank Iva, it's thanks to that unique revolutionary that Sanji has the vial of serum in his jacket pocket. It'll fix everything with him and Zoro. Zoro and Perona will be free to live their separate lives and Sanji can stop dreaming of his own soulmate every night.

"Don't forget to read the instructions candy boy!" Iva hollers after him, making several people turn and look and Sanji cringe hard.

He quickly walks away, determined to get back to the Sunny. Zoro likely isn't there yet but he wants to be set up for when he is. He meanders through markets on the way there and is calmly looking at what new supplies he'll bring with him to the ship before they all leave. No point buying things now, who knows how long it'll take them to all get here in full.

After living on that island Sanji has to say that pink is one of his least favourite colours, but regardless of his preferences it still leaps out at him. So when he turns around and sees a shocking cascade of pink hair his eyes are drawn to it. There's a girl with a parasol that has little ears on it, overabundant bows on her clothing, shiny red boots and overdone makeup. It's Perona, Zoro's soulmate. What is she doing here?

She seems to sense his eyes on her and turns to look at him, surprise overcoming her face for a second before a slow catlike smile spreads across her face. Painted lips stretch into a smile and with a flutter of false lashes and a manicured nail she beckons him off of the main thoroughfare and into a more secluded grove behind it.

"Sanji." She says, twirling her parasol cutely.

"I'm surprised you remember my name." Sanji admits though he knows that he hasn't forgotten hers.

"Please, I've heard it every day for the past two years. Honestly I'm sick of it." She says with a snort and jams her parasol into the ground.

Sanji is about to question her on that remark when she speaks again.

"Where have you been for the last two years, Sanji?" She asks him, her eyes fixed on him unblinkingly.

"I'd... rather not talk about it." He hedges, thinking of the times when one of Iva's people did manage to force him into a dress and chase him around that hell island.

Perona's hand snaps forward, fisting in the front of Sanji's shirt and she drags him down to her level. Her other hand raises and ghosts start to appear all around them, Sanji remembers just what they can do.

"Don't get cute with me. Tell me where you were and if you were with your soulmate or I will send these ghosts through you and put you into a hell that you cannot possibly imagine!" She threatens him with a snarl. Sanji for a split second can see just why she is connected to Zoro after all, both ruthless crazy fuckers the pair of them.

"My soulmate?" He manages to say in bewilderment.

"Were you with her?" She asks again.

"What? No. Why would you think that?" Sanji answers, completely lost.

Perona lets him go and sighs. She picks up her parasol once more and opens it with a twirl.

"That fool, I told him he was worrying about nothing." She tuts.

The gears in Sanji's brain start to turn.

"Were you with Zoro?" He asks in alarm.

"Yep. If it wasn't for me I swear the idiot would have died of sepsis by now, so gross." She says disapprovingly.

"So you brought him here." Sanji concludes.

"Of course I did, he'd be on the other side of the planet totally lost if I hadn't. Although I turn my back on him for one second in the market and he's gone, honestly." Perona sighs and Sanji can't manage to suppress his laugh.

"That was basically my life before we were all separated. He can't even manage a straight line!" Sanji laughs and Perona smiles.

Perona pauses and perks up a little, looking around. If Sanji focuses he swears that he can hear Zoro's voice calling Perona's name. Perona darts out back onto the main street and Sanji follows her. Before he gets to her though she's gone, but it's not hard to spot her. She's across the street, hanging off of the neck of a tall muscled man with stupid green hair. Sanji's heart pounds, it's Zoro.

Zoro can't see him though, his eyes are shut and he has his forehead pressed to Perona's. A completely unashamed smile is on his face and his hands are around her waist. He was with her for two years and evidently he no longer feels like he doesn't need her. Sanji's treacherous mind informs him that Zoro has spent more time with her than with him.

Perona pulls back and then leans to Zoro's hear to whisper something, her other hand still on the other side of Zoro's face. From here Sanji can see that Zoro has acquired a new scar over his eye, he wonders what the story behind that is. Zoro's eye snaps open, it seems the other one doesn't open anymore. Sanji couldn't care less though because Zoro is staring right at him with shock that turns to delight.

Perona says something quietly and smacks his back, breaking Zoro from his stare with Sanji so that he can flip her off an inch from her face. Okay, so it seems like the pair aren't entirely pleasant to each other now. Sanji doesn't mind though because it gives him an opportunity to look at him more. He's taller, his hair is longer, there's that scar but most notable of all is his body. Zoro was ripped before and it's not as if Sanji himself isn't but now it's like Zoro's muscles have muscles. He's huge! Sanji really, really hopes that he can get his hands on them soon. He has a lot of catching up to do.

"So you finally got here then, cook." Zoro's voice rumbles, going through Sanji's sex drive before his brain. Needless to say, Sanji's reply is a little slow off the mark.

"What do you mean finally?!" He squawks indignantly.

"What do you think? You're slow, we got here way before you." Zoro boasts and Sanji has a feeling that Zoro doesn't mean him and the rest of the crew, but him and Perona. When did his "I" become a "we"?

"You had help!" Sanji points out, gesturing to Zoro's better half.

"And you sailed here all on your own?" Zoro challenges and Sanji halts. He is not explaining about Iva. Nope, nope, nope.

"Didn't think so. Come on, let's go back to the ship. It's this way." Zoro says, confidently striding off. Perona sighs and pops up a wall of her negative ghosts in front of him. Zoro comes to a screeching halt and then turns left, more ghosts pop up, he goes the other way and yet more appear. She's herding him, like an especially stupid sheep.

"That is brilliant." Sanji remarks in awe and Zoro stomps past them both grumpily.

"Not a word!" Zoro growls though Sanji isn't sure which one of them it's to. Zoro leads them, with some assistance, to the Sunny. Sanji can't help but smile the whole way there, he's happy to see Zoro again. Even if the man is grumpy as hell right now.


	21. Chapter 21

Zoro is sitting in Shakky's Rip Off Bar polishing his sword, and yes he will continue to describe it as that no matter how many times Perona laughs at him for it. Zoro's attention is diverted when the door swings open and Sanji saunters inside. Zoro's pulse thuds hard just at the sight of the handsome man, he'll never tell Sanji that but it does happen nevertheless. Sanji walks to him and carefully sets a large bag of supplies by the side of the table which Zoro is sat at.

"Just you here?" Sanji asks, lighting a cigarette.

"Were you looking for someone else?" Zoro asks, the room is empty but for Shakky on the other side of it reading a book.

"No, just you." Sanji answers and Zoro can't help but wonder why Sanji even asked then.

"So, we're leaving in the morning." Sanji says, his words shaping the smoke that escapes his mouth.

"I know." He says simply.

"How is Perona getting back to... wherever you were? You still haven't told me where you were." Sanji says with a frown.

"You still haven't told me where you were." Zoro points out. A complicated expression goes over Sanji's face but he can say that it's not positive overall.

"Fine. But what about Perona?" Sanji asks.

"I thought Nami had told you?" Zoro replies and sheathes his cleaned sword, who knows when he'll need it next. Probably soon.

"Obviously she hasn't so why don't you?" Sanji says and kicks Zoro in the ankle. Lightly obviously as nothing is broken.

"She's coming with us." Zoro says simply.

Sanji's mouth falls open and he drops his cigarette into Zoro's beer, ruining both the drink and the cigarette. At least it wasn't hard alcohol or they'd have a fire on their hands.

"Hey!" Zoro protests.

"She's joining the crew?!" Sanji asks in a stricken voice.

"What? No. She's just hitching a ride. There's some place a few islands into the New World that she wants to go to, Luffy didn't mind and Nami said she should tell you." Zoro explains with a laugh.

"She didn't. I thought... I thought you two wanted nothing to do with each other. I mean, I get that you'd get on a bit after spending two years with her..." Sanji trails off. Two years had made him actually like Iva, despite all logic to the contrary.

"I wouldn't say I like her. She's my soulmate and I love her but I want to punch her in the face alarmingly often. I guess I have a type." Zoro laughs. Despite being really different people he does have a similar relationship with both Perona and Sanji, even though one is platonic and the other romantic.

"You never even wanted to meet her." Sanji says, sounding almost... hurt?

"I didn't. But... we're gonna see each other again through the rest of our lives. We've got each other's vivre cards so we can do it. I'm not getting in her way and she's not getting in mine, it's perfect really." He explains and pulls the locket out of his pocket, it's tough steel and when he flicks it open there's a little heart shaped vivre card piece in there. She's got a similar deal for him.

"You love her?" Sanji asks weakly, going back to that point again.

"Yeah. Platonically obviously, it's not like you're competing with her." Zoro points out. He doesn't say, not like Zoro himself has to do with Sanji's own soulmate. So why does he look so distraught over all of this?

"I'm... gonna go put this stuff back in the ship." Sanji says and gets up, grabbing his bag and leaving.

"Hey! You owe me a new drink!" He calls after Sanji but the blond doesn't react. Weird.


	22. Chapter 22

Zoro pushes open the door to the Sunny's weights room and sighs in joy as he gets into it. Training with Mihawk was excellent but there is something to be said for the comfort of his own place. It could, of course, do without the girl sitting on the bench and filing her nails.

"Move." He says, pulling his coat off and dropping it on the floor. Perona rolls her eyes at him but does so, settling instead for pulling a chair up behind his bench press area.

"So, how did that go?" Perona asks as Zoro fills up the bar with 200kg of weights, a nice little warm up to start.

"How did what go?" He asks, rolling his shoulders and stretching out his arms as he sits on the bench.

"Ugh, dumb isn't cute. Your little meeting with Sanji, I saw him go in there with you." she says slyly.

"Do you have to spy on me?" He grunts and settles himself under the bar.

"Only when it's interesting." Perona says lightly and Zoro picks up the barbell and holds it above his chest. He needs to warm up the full range of motion and it's been a while since he did it so he can take his time. It'll be nice.

"Nothing exciting happened. He was confused because Nami didn't tell him you were hitching a ride." Zoro explains and lowers the light weight.

"Oh, and how did he take that?" Perona asks curiously.

Zoro frowns. Sanji was... weird. He'd almost seemed upset by the whole thing, maybe because Nami forgot about him or something?

"Zoro." Perona prompts.

"I don't know, he was weird." Zoro answers honestly. With Perona honesty is the best policy, it's alarmingly easy to be open with her but he figures that's just the soulmate thing.

"Of course he's weird, he likes you." Perona snorts. Zoro laughs, fake and loud and Perona responds in kind. It's a loud competition at who can be the most sarcastic about how not funny the whole thing was. Perona wins, she has this high pitched 'oh ho ho hoh!' laugh that makes her sound like an evil old lady.

"Bite me." Zoro adds and continues lifting.

"Can you tell me how he was weird? What did he do? What did he react to?" Perona asks, immediately back at the task at hand.

Zoro considers this.

"He seemed almost bothered by you, which doesn't make sense. He was all into the soulmate thing and it's not like he has to compete with you, we're not dating." Zoro laughs, the idea just as dumb now as it was then.

"Of course he has to compete with me. Not to get into your pants, because that's gross, but for your time and affection." She says with a sigh.

Zoro sits up and starts to unload the bar, setting it up for a proper weight. Her words imply that Sanji is jealous, but that's pretty childish isn't it?

"That sounds too petty for him. Anyway, I said how long you'd be with us for so it's not like he'd have to 'share' me forever if that's how you think he's looking at it." He says and gets back under the bar.

"How long you think I'm going to be here for may not actually be how long it is, you know how unpredictable the Grand Line is and the other half is even worse. Besides, I'm coming back." She points out.

"Yeah, when I told him that and showed him the vivre card he dropped his cigarette in my drink!" Zoro says, he still feels kind of annoyed about that. He starts to lift the heavy weight with a good deal of effort, although Perona is the one groaning into her hands behind him.

"I am the issue here, he's jealous you moron. He gave up his soulmate to be with you and you're just carting yours around and you don't think he might feel bad about that?" Perona demands. Zoro scowls as he lowers the weight with difficulty, trying to keep the motion smooth and not jerky.

"'s different." He grunts out and pushes it up again.

"Have you even asked him about your relationship? Confirmed that you both still feel the same? Talked about how his soulmate and I fit into this whole mess?" She asks in exasperation.

"He knows... how I feel." Zoro grits out as he holds the barbell overhead.

Perona snarls in frustration and suddenly a negative hollow appears above the bar. Zoro gets a split second of 'oh no' which is immediately followed by the dual sensation of no one will ever love him and his throat being crushed by an overloaded bar. He frantically shoves it off of him with an overly strong punch, slamming it into the floor and wall nearby.

"Talk to him or I will make your life a living hell, all for your own good too. He's not psychic you ugly moron." Perona says and puts her polished red boot into Zoro's liver.

The door bangs open and Zoro sees the side of polished black shoes.

"What happened?! I heard this huge crash..." Sanji says, trailing off as it seems that Zoro is in no danger of dying.

"Your boyfriend is the biggest idiot I know!" Perona says haughtily and stalks out past Sanji.

"Nothing new there then." Sanji replies.

Zoro rolls onto his back and sees an upside down Sanji looking more than a little uncomfortable. God damn Perona.

"You know that I still want to be with you, right?" He asks croakily and Sanji looks surprised.

"Well, I'd... hoped so. I want that." Sanji says.

"And the pink bitch that I will drown in the ocean in the next ten minutes doesn't change that, right?" Zoro continues.

"Do you two try to kill each other a lot?" Sanji asks, not answering the question.

"Like I said, I have a type apparently." Zoro answers, though he doesn't miss the pained look that Sanji gets when he hears that.

"What's your problem with her?" Zoro asks with a frown as he stands up and dusts himself off from Perona's light murder attempt.

"Nothing, I don't- I don't know her. And I could never hate a lady, especially one who has had to suffer you." Sanji answers with a smirk. God, does Zoro ever have a type. Apparently, his type is utter bastards. Go figure.

"Sanji." He says instead.

"I just didn't expect you to be with her. You weren't interested and I thought we'd both given our soulmates up and... it complicates things." Sanji says uneasily.

"It's platonic. What could possibly be complicated by a totally different relationship?" Zoro demands. Perona was right, apparently they did need to talk about this. She was going to be insufferably smug when she finds out.

"I wanted to... nevermind. I need to think." Sanji mutters and rushes out of the room.

"Hey! Get back here!" Zoro calls after him but Sanji is already haring across the deck and then onto the mainland. Damn, he's become even faster over the last two years.

Zoro scowls and rubs at his sore throat. Down on deck Perona looks up at him through thick black lashes and raises an eyebrow at him.

"Go walk off the pier!" He shouts down at her irritably and retreats back to his room.

What the hell was that all about?


	23. Chapter 23

Sanji is stood in the kitchen leaning over his kitchen counter as he reads. In his hands is heart covered pink stationary with needlessly ostentatious writing. On the counter before him sits the vial that he's been carrying around in his jacket pocket since he landed.

'Dear Candy Boy' the letter begins. Sanji just manages to not throw it out of the window at that, he hates that name.

'Make sure that you're very careful with that serum, I put it in reinforced glass but I know the scrapes that you get yourself into.' Sanji scowls, as if all of the 'scrapes' he was in on Iva's island wasn't Iva's own fault!

'One sip is enough for it to be effective, but I included extra in case you mess it up. Future doses will override previous doses but other than that nothing can reverse the effects, so be careful.' Sanji looks at the long glass tube and the slightly amber coloured liquid inside of it, suspended in the middle is a thin ribbon of blood from Sanji's heart. He's still got the needle hole in his chest under a sticky bandage, that hadn't been fun to get. Zoro was worth it, though.

'The serum will instantly sever any soulmate connections present. Any blood from the heart inside will form a mutual soulmate bond in the person who drinks it. As the serum is now anyone who drinks it will have a mutual soulmate bond with you and no one else.' Sanji frowns and puts the letter down for a moment. So if Zoro drinks it he'll stop being soulmates with Perona and become soulmates with Sanji and Sanji himself will be soulmates with Zoro. It won't just be one way.

That doesn't solve Sanji's Camie problem, though, which was the whole reason that he took this thing in the first place. But... if he drinks it... No, then he'd lose all of his soulmate connections including with Zoro. He supposes that he could drink it first and then give it to Zoro, but what effect would drinking his own blood have? He reads more of the note.

'Drinking your own blood won't make you your own soulmate.' Oh, well, that'll teach him to stop reading, won't it?

'The result is instant, although sometimes people pass out so don't hold anything super fragile when doing this. Use it responsibly!'

Iva had only given this to him under the solemn promise that everyone using it was aware of what it would do. He doesn't know if Iva had worried that he might pour some into a shot glass and dare Zoro to drink it, which would have absolutely worked. But Sanji doesn't want to be Zoro's soulmate if Zoro doesn't want it too, that's kind of the point. He hadn't even considered that Zoro might say no. That was until Perona had shown up with him.

Now he doesn't know what to do.

He turns and looks out of the window, he's sure he'll be able to find the two of them together. They almost always are together. He realises that he's gritting his teeth in irritation, both at how much it bothers him and at how oblivious Zoro is as to why.

If Zoro's opinion on his own soulmate changed over time then the obvious parallel is what if Sanji's own will? What if he falls out of love with Zoro and Camie is who he belongs to? What if the bond overpowers him so much that he gives up looking for All Blue and just stays with her?

He should have done what Zoro used to do, covered every inch of skin and never touched Camie in the first place.

He can't see the pair so he heads out onto the deck and realises that it's because they're in the rigging. Zoro is checking for wear, probably on the orders of Franky who is doing the same on the other side. He's hanging upside down checking the underside so he likely can't see Sanji at all, at the mast Perona's body is snoozing and her ghost is floating up near Zoro just as it was the first time they touched.

"-where we're going Zoro. You can't just think it's not a problem." she says, evidently partway through some debate.

"It's not a problem." Zoro grunts and climbs a little higher. Perona sees Sanji and her eyes widen a fraction before she starts to smile.

"And what if he sees her, because she will be there, and ditches you for her?" Perona asks and Sanji clenches his fists. She's trying to break them up.

"You don't know him very well." Zoro snorts dismissively.

"You told me he did it before." Perona points out and Sanji's eyes widen, Zoro told her that? No wonder she hates him, Sanji still hates himself for that.

"That... sucked." Zoro says carefully, evidently that still pains him. Sanji could drown himself in guilt, but he's actually trying to fix things.

"But first reactions don't count, you know how powerful they are. Anyway, he chose me. Maybe you should stop being so protective and get to know him yourself, I can take care of myself you know." Zoro points out and climbs some more to stare at more rope.

"Oh yeah, you were doing such a great job before. But fine, you're big enough and ugly enough to look after yourself, I get it." Perona sighs, leaning back in the air.

"Why do I talk to you?" Zoro grumbles bitterly. Perona flicks a look at Sanji and smiles slyly.

"Because you love me more than anyone else." She says sweetly. Zoro throws a pair of clippers at her and... through her. Because it's her ghost form. Sanji watches as they sail over the edge of the boat and onto the mainland with a wet slap.

"You are picking those up." Franky calls from the other side.

Sanji realises that Zoro is about to come down and will see him and realise that he's been there the whole time eavesdropping. Sanji puts on a burst of speed and darts to the back of the ship and is already in hiding by the time Zoro's boots thud onto the floor.

Sanji catches his breath in time for Perona to float through the wall and scare it right out of him again.

"You and I need to talk." She says in a voice that is both sweet and threatening.


End file.
